To oversee the peace settlement, Newcastle switched across to the position of Northern Secretary. He secured Sandwich's promotion to the Admiralty although he had wanted Sandwich to succeed him as Southern Secretary. During the summer of 1748, Newcastle made his first ever trip outside Britain when he visited Hanover and was received with a rapturous reception wherever he went. When the talks got under way, they went far more smoothly, and in October 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was formally concluded. Britain would give back Louisbourg to France in exchange for the return of Madras and a full French withdrawal from the Low Countries. The issue of free trade for which Britain had gone to war with Spain in 1739 was not mentioned at all.