text:  The untoward issue of the war which terminated in 1749 in the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle the disgraceful commencement of the Seven Years' War unjustly expiated by the blood of Byng gloriously redeemed by the genius of Chatham; the disasters of the American contest; the frequent defeats of the first years of the Revolutionary war afford decisive evidence how deeply this degrading and corrupting system had entered into the vitals of the nation during the eighteenth century