XIII. BOOK or future conjunctions. In relation to the three points stated in this " insolent memorial," Mr. 1761. Pitt declared it sufficient to say respecting the first, "that the courts instituted for the cognizance of such matters are open to the parties who think fit to seek redress in due course of law. As to the obsolete pretensions of Spain to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, no concession in a matter so sacred would be even thought of. With regard to the disputes relating to the logwood coasts, his Britannic majesty was willing to receive any just overtures on the part of his Catholic majesty, provided they were not conveyed through the channel of France. And he concluded with professing his expectation that the court of Madrid would come to some explicit eclaircissement as to the destination of her fleets, and with respect to her disposition to maintain and cultivate friendship and good correspondence with Great Britain." The earl of Bristol, who appears to have conducted himself throughout this difficult negotiation with distinguished ability and address, informed Mr. Pitt in his reply, dated August 31, 1761, that immediately on the receipt of the dispatches from England, he had waited on the Spanish minister Don Ricardo Wall, at St. Ildefonso, and, in the most explicit, and at the same time in the least offensive mode, executed the orders 1761. contained in them. In reply, general Wall af. BOOK firmed that the king of Spain, with a view merely to render the peace more permanent, and without the least intention to give offence to his Britannic majesty, had assented to the proposal made by the most Christian king for the joint accommodation of their differences with Great Britain. The Spanish minister asked, whether it was possible to imagine that his Catholic majesty was seeking occasions of provocation at a time when England was in the most flourishing and exalted situation it had ever known, in consequence of the most extraordinary series of prosperities that any nation had ever met with; that Spain was surprized Great Britain should take umbrage at any naval preparations made since the accession of his present majesty, since the ships of war in commission were fewer than those which had been equipped during the reign of the late king Ferdinand; that they served in part to maintain the correspondence between the kingdoms of Spain and the Sicilies, of which his Catholic majesty, during the minority of his son, was the guardian and protector. Others were intended to convoy the homeward or outward bound flotas, assogues, or register ships; and the remaining ones were to defend their coasts against the insults of the Barbary corsairs; and that it was the inva 1 XIII. BOOK riable wish of his Catholic majesty to cement and cultivate the friendship so happily subsisting 1761. between the two courts. The Spanish minister acknowledged that the greatest harmony existed between the kings of France and Spain, at which who in this age could affect to wonder ? But if his Catholic majesty had conceived that the memorial in question could have been construed into a menace, he would never have consented to the delivery of it. On the contrary, what proceeding, said the Spanish minister, more noble can an enemy hold, than to say as France does to Great Britain-I am resolved for the sake of peace to make these sacrifices; but at the same time, in order to secure the permanency of it, I am desirous that England should settle with Spain their subjects of disagreement, lest from the nature of our subsisting engagements I may be entangled in a fresh war? As to the differences which had arisen between England and Spain respecting the capture of the Spanish ships during the war, the general allowed they would admit of an easy accommodation. But the court of Spain thought the other two articles of much more importance; and that the refusal of the English court to enter into any negotiation respecting the claim of Spain to fish on the banks of Newfoundland was violent and harsh, especially as coupled with the absolute XIII. determination of England not to relinquish her BOOK acknowledged usurpations on the coast of Honduras, except his Catholic majesty would pre- 1761. viously assure to them the right to which they pretended, of cutting logwood within that territory. In other words, he affirmed this was saying, " I will give up the dwelling of which I have taken forcible possession, but first you shall engage to give me what I want to take." When the forbearance of Spain respecting the logwood was compared with the exclusive and dogmatical claim of England to the Newfoundland fishery, which was of so much importance to Spain, as an article not of luxury but subsistence, the Spanish minister said, he thought the English themselves would hesitate to boast of the superior justice and equity of their conduct. In his subsequent dispatches of September and October, the English ambassador inforıned the court of London, " that umbrage had been taken by the court of Madrid at the additional fortifications reported to be going forward at Gibraltar, and that general Wall had asked, if it were possible that England could be seriously apprehensive of a rupture with Spain; affirming, that at no time had the Catholic king been more intent upon cultivating a good understanding with his Britannic majesty than at the present; that the flota had arrived at Cadiz, but 1 - H BOOK that the treasure belonging to the crown was XIII. much less than had been expected; that great 1761. abuses and malversations had been charged against the Spanish viceroys and governors in the West Indies; and that his Catholic majesty's ministers had strongly suggested to him the impracticability of reforming effectually the old defective system of government, should the court of Madrid embroil itself in the present troubles of Europe: that the Spanish minister, Don Ricardo, urged the evacuation of the more recent settlements on the Honduras coast, which he said would serve as a salvo for the honor of Spain, and greatly facilitate the final adjustment of her differences with England. General Wall, said the ambassador, has ever acted in too ingenuous a inanner, for ine to suspect the least duplicity in his conduct. The ambassador added, that on the notification of the king's marriage to the court of Madrid, he was particularly enjoined to assure the king of England of the share his Catholic majesty would ever take in all events that contributed to his happiness-that the Spanish minister expressed a thorough concern at the breaking off the conferences between the courts of Versailles and London; and said it was the opinion in Spain, that the French ministers had gone as great lengths in concessions as could be expected, considering the engage |