REJOICINGS FOR THE PEACE.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was celebrated by fireworks, illuminations, and rejoicings, in which the English, French, and Dutch, seemed to display a spirit of emulation in point of taste and magnificence; and, in all probability, these three powers were sincerely pleased at the cessation of the war. England enjoyed a respite from intolerable supplies, exorbitant insurance, and interrupted commerce; Holland was delivered from the brink of a French invasion; and France had obtained a breathing time for re-establishing her naval power, for exerting that spirit of intrigue, by dint of which she hath often embroiled her neighbours, and for executing plans of insensible encroachment, which might prove more advantageous than the progress of open hostilities. In the affair of Tobago, the French king had manifested his inclination to avoid immediate disputes with England; and had exhibited another proof of the same disposition in his behaviour to the prince-pretender, who had excited such a dangerous rebellion in the island of Great Britain.

Among those princes and powers who excepted against different articles of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the chevalier de St. George, foreseeing that none of the plenipotentiaries would receive his protest, employed his agents to fix it up in the public places of Aix-la-Chapelle; a precaution of very little service to his cause, which all the states of Christendom seemed now to have abandoned. So little was the interest of his family considered in this negotiation, that the contracting powers agreed, without reserve, to a literal insertion of the fifth article of the quadruple alliance; by which it was stipulated, that neither the pretender nor any of his descendants should be allowed to reside within the territories belonging to any of the subscribing parties. At the same time the plenipotentiaries of France promised to those of Great Britain, that prince Charles-Edward should be immediately obliged to quit the dominions of his most christian majesty. Notice of this agreement was accordingly given by the court of Versailles to the young adventurer; and as he had declared he would never return to Italy, Mons. de Courteille, the French envoy to the cantons of Switzerland, was directed by his sovereign to demand an asylum for prince Edward in the city of Fribourg. The regency having complied in this particular with the earnest request of his most christian majesty, Mr. Bamaby, the British minister to the Helvetic body, took the alarm, and presented the magistracy of Fribourg with a remonstrance, couched in such terms as gave offence to that regency, and drew upon him a severe answer. In vain had the French king exerted his influence in procuring this retreat for the young pretender, who, being pressed with repeated messages to withdraw, persisted in refusing to quit the place, to which he had been so cordially invited by his cousin the king of France; and where he said that monarch had solemnly promised, on the word of a king, that he would never forsake him in his distress, nor abandon the interests of his family. Louis was not a little perplexed at this obstinacy of prince Edward, which was the more vexatious, as that youth appeared to be the darling of the Parisians; who not only admired him for his own accomplishments, and pitied him for his sufferings, but also revered him, as a young hero lineally descended from their renowned Henry the Fourth. At length, the two English noblemen arriving at Paris as hostages for the performance of the treaty, and seeing him appear at all the public places of diversion, complained of this circumstance as an insult to their sovereign, and an infringement of the treaty so lately concluded. The French king, after some hesitation between punctilio and convenience, resolved to employ violence upon the person of this troublesome stranger, since milder remonstrances had not been able to influence his conduct; but this resolution was not taken till the return of a courier whom he despatched to the chevalier de St. George; who, being thus informed of his son’s deportment, wrote a letter to him, laying strong injunctions upon him to yield to the necessity of the times, and acquiesce with a good grace in the stipulations which his cousin of France had found it necessary to subscribe for the interest of his realm. Edward, far from complying with this advice and injunction, signified his resolution to remain in Paris; and even declared that he would pistol any man who should presume to lay violent hands on his person. In consequence of this bold declaration, an extraordinary council was held at Versailles, when it was determined to arrest him without further delay, and the whole plan of this enterprise was finally adjusted. That same evening, the prince entering the narrow lane that leads to the opera, the barrier was immediately shut, and the sergeant of the guard called “to arms;” on which monsieur de Vaudreuil, exempt of the French guards, advancing to Edward, “Prince,” said he, “I arrest you in the king’s name, by virtue of this order.” At that instant the youth was surrounded by four grenadiers, in order to prevent any mischief he might have done with a case of pocket-pistols which he always carried about him; and a guard was placed at all the avenues and doors of the opera-house, lest any tumult should have ensued among the populace. These precautions being taken, Vaudreuil, with an escort, conducted the prisoner through the garden of the palais-royal, to a house where the duke de Biron waited with a coach and six to convey him to the castle of Vincennes, whether he was immediately accompanied by a detachment from the regiment of French guards, under the command of that nobleman. He had not remained above three days in his confinement, when he gave the French ministry to understand that he would conform himself to the king’s intentions; and was immediately enlarged, upon giving his word and honour that he would, without delay, retire from the dominions of France. Accordingly, he set out in four days from Fountainbleau, attended by three officers, who conducted him as far as Pont-Bauvosin on the frontiers, where they took their leave of him and returned to Versailles. He proceeded for some time in the road to Chamberri; but soon returned into the French dominions, and, passing through Dauphiné, repaired to Avignon, where he was received with extraordinary honours by the pope’s legate. In the meantime, his arrest excited great murmurings at Paris; the inhabitants blaming, without scruple, their king’s conduct in this instance, as a scandalous breach of hospitality, as well as a mean proof of condescension to the king of England; and many severe pasquinades, relating to this transaction, were fixed up in the most public places of that metropolis.