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every fuch confideration, and to take a step which thefe reafons alone could justify.

The repeated endeavours of the French Government to defeat this miffion in its out fet, and to break off the intercourfe thus opened, even before the first steps towards negotiation could be taken, the indecent and injurious language employed, with a view to irritate, the captious and frivolous objec tions raised for the purpose of obftructing the progrefs of the difcuffion; all these have fufficiently appeared from the official papers which paffed on both fides, and which are known to all Europe.

But above all, the abrupt termination of the negotiation has afforded the most conclufive proof, that at no period of it was any real with for peace entertained on the part of the French Government.

After repeated evafion and delay, that Government had at last confented to establish, as the bafis of the negotiation, a principle propofed by his Majefty, liberal in its own nature, equitable towards his enemies, and calculated to provide for the interefts of his allies, and of Europe. It had been agreed that compenfation should be made to France by proportionable restitutions from hi Majefty's conquefts on that power, for those arrangements to which the fhould be called upon to confent, in order to fatisfy the juft pretenfions of his allies, and to preferve the political balance of Europe. At the defire of the French Government itfelf, memorials were prefented by his Majefty's Minifter, which contained the outlines of terms of peace, grounded on the bafis fo eftablished, and in which his Majefty proposed to carry to the utmost poffible extent the application of a principle fo equitable with refpect to Europe, and fo liberal on his Majefty's part. The delivery of these papers was accompanied by a declaration exprefsly and repeatedly made, both verbally and in writing, that his Majefty's Minister was willing and prepared to enter, with a fpirit of conciliation and fairness, into the difcuffion of the different points there contained, or into that of any other propofal or scheme of peace which the French Government might wish to fubftitute i its place.

In reply to this communication, he receiv. ed a demand, in form the most offenfive, and in substance the most extravagant, that ever was made in the courfe of any negotiation. It was peremptorily required of him, that in the very outfet of the bufinefs, when no anf wer had been given by the French Government to his first propofal, when he had not even learned, in any regular fhape, the nature or extent of the objections to it, and much lefs received from that Government

any other offer or plan for peace, he should, in twenty-four hours, deliver in a statement of the final terms to which his Court would in any cafe accede- A demand tending evidently to shut the door to all negotiation, to preclude all difcuffion, all explanation, all poffibility of the amicable adjustment of points of difference- A demand in its nature prepofterous, in its execution impracticable; fince it is plain that no fuch ultimate refolution, refpecting a general plan of peace, ever can be rationally formed, much lefs declared, without knowing what points are principally objected to by the enemy, and what facilities he may be willing to offer in return for conceffion in thofe refpects. Having declined compliance with this demand, and explained the reafons which rendered it inadmiffible, but having, at the fame time, expressly renewed the declaration of his readiness to enter into the difcuffion of the propofal he had conveyed, or of any other which might be communicated to him, the King's Minister received no other answer than an abrupt command to quit Paris in forty-eight hours. If, in addition to fuch an infult, any further proof were neceffary, of the difpofitions of those by whom it is offered, fuch proof would be abundantly fupplied from the contents of the note in which this order was conveyed. The mode of negotiation, on which the French Government infifted, is there rejected, and no practicable means left open for treating with effect. The bafis of negotiation, fo recently established by mutual confent, is there difclaimed, and in its room a principle, clearly inadmiffible, is re-afferted, as the only ground on which France can confent to treat, the very fame principle which had been brought forward in reply to his Majefty's firft overtures from Switzerland, which had then been rejected by his Majefty, but which now appears never to have been, in fact, abandoned by the Government of France, however inconfiftent with that on which they had expressly agreed to treat.

It is therefore neceffary that all Europe fhould understand, that the rupture of the negotiation at Paris does not arife from the failure of any fincere attempt, on the part of France, to reconcile, by fair difcuffion, the views and interefts of the contending powers. Such a difcuffion has been repeatedly invited, and even folicited, on the part of his Majefty, but has been, in the first inftance, and abfolutely, precluded by the act of the French Government.

It arifes exclufively from the determination of that Government to reject all means of peace; a determination which appeared but too strongly in all the preliminary difcuffions,

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A fimple reference to that declaration, and a bare enumeration of the vague and frivolous charges which it contains, would indeed be fufficient to fatisfy all reafonable and impartial minds, that no part of the conduc of Great Britain towards Spain, has afforded the smallest ground of complaint, much less any motive fufficiently powerful for adding to the prefent calamities of Europe all the evils of a new and complicated wan

which was clearly manifefted in the demand which may enfue are folely to be attributed of an ultimatum, made in the very outset of to the conduct of his enemies. the negotiation; but which is proved beyond all poffibility of doubt, by the obftinate adherence to a claim which never can be admitted: A claim that the construction which that government affects to put (though even in that refpect unfupported by the fact) on the internal conftitution of its own country, fhall be received by other nations as para mount to every known principal of public law in Europe, as fuperior to the obligations of treaties, to the ties of common interest, to the most preffing and urgent confiderations of general fecurity

On fuch grounds it is that the French Government has abruptly terminated a negotiation, which it commenced with reluc tance, and conducted with every indication of a refolution to prevent its final fuccefs. On these motives it is that the further effufion of blood, the continual calamities of war, the interruptions of peaceable and friendly intercourfe among mankind, the prolonged distress of Europe, and the accumulated miseries of France itself, ate by the government of that country to be justified to the world.

His Majefty, who had entered into the negotiation with good faith, who has fuffered no impediment to prevent his profecuting it with earnestnefs and fincerity, has now on ly to lament its abrupt termination; and to renew, in the face of all Europe, the folemn declaration, that, whenever his enemies fhall be difpofed to enter on the work of general pacification, in a spirit of conciliation and equity, nothing fhall be wanting on his part to contribute to the accomplishment of that great object, with a view to which he has already offered fuch confiderable facrifices on his part, and which is now retarded only by the exorbitant pretenfions of his enemies.

Weftminfier, Dec. 27. 1797.

ANSWER of the Court of Great Britain to the Spanish Declaration of War. See p. 759. THE open aggreffions of Spain, the violence committed against the persons and property of his Majefty's fubjects, and the unprovoked declaration of war on the part of that power, have at length compelled his Majefty to take the neceffary measures for repelling force by force, and for vindicating the dignity of his Crown, and the rights and interefts of his people.

At the moment of adopting these measures, his Majefty feels it due to himself to remove every doubt which can be thrown on the indifputable juftice of his caufe; and it will be eafily proved, from the very reafons ad duced by the Court of Madrid, in fupport of its declaration of war, that all the calamities

The only difficulty of a detailed reply arifes not from the ftrength and importance of the complaints alledged, but from their weakness and futility-from the confufed and unintel ligible shape in which they are brought forward-and from the impoffibility of referring them to any established principle of juftice, to any ufual form or topic of complaint between independent governments, or to any of thofe motives which can alone create the painful duty of an appeal to arms.

The acts of hoftility attributed to his Majesty, in the manifefto of Spain, confist either of matters perfectly innocent and indifferent in their nature, or of imputed opinions and intentions of which no proof is adduced, nor any effect alledged; or laftly, of complaints of the mifconduct of unauthorifed individuals; refpecting all which his Majefty has never failed to inftitute inquiry, where inquiry was neceffary, and to caufe juftice to be done in the regular course of judicial proceedings. The very name of fuch complaints affords a fufficient answer to the conclusion attempted to be drawn from them by Spain; and his Majefty might have been well juftified in declining all further difcuffion on points, on which it was manifeft, that no just motive of hoftility could be grounded.

Such, however, was not his conduct. Anxious to avert from both kingdoms the calamities of war, he has repeatedly and vainly propofed to adjust, by friendly dif cuffion, all points of difference which could fubfiit between the government of two nations whose real interests were the fame, and who had an equal concern in opposing the progrefs of a common enemy.

This difcuffion having always been fudioully avoided by the Court of Madrid, it now remains only for his Majefty to vindi cate, in this public manner, his own cause, and to prove the futility of those pretences by which that Court now feeks to colour its ag. greffion.

The first point brought forward to fupport an accufation of ill-faith, is the conduct of the King's Admiral at Toulon; who is charged with having deftroyed thofe fhips and naval ftores of the enemy which he could not carry away with him; and with having

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afterwards undertaken an expedition to Cor- wards Great Britain, or with what confif fica, without the knowledge or participation tency the inability of Spain, to prosecute the of the Spanish Admiral. To an accufation former conteft, without pecuniary aid from of fuch a nature, alledged as a ground for war its ally, can have become a motive of enbetween two great nations, it can hardly be gaging gratuitoufly, in all the expences and expected that a ferious anfwer fhould be difficulties of a new war against that very given. It is, perhaps, the first time that it power. had been imputed as a crime to one of the commanding officers of two powers acting in alliance, and making a common caufe in a war, that he did more than his proportion of mifchief to the common enemy. And if it be really true, that fuch a fentiment was entertained at Madrid, certainly no other juftification can be neceffary for not inviting the officers of that Court to join in fubfequent expeditions against the fame enemy: At all events, it cannot be pretended that a co-operation between two allies (however cordial and fincere,) in any one particular enter prize, could afterwards reftrain either of them from undertaking separately any other, to which his own force appeared in itself to -be adequate.

The fecond inftance of ill-faith, attributed to his Majefty, is the conclufion of a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States of America; a power with whom both the King as well as his Catholic Majefty was perfectly free to contract any fuch engagements; and with whom the Court of Madrid has actually concluded a fimilar treaty, with this difference only, that the Hipulations of the British treaty can give no ground of offence or injury to any other power, while the Spanish treaty contains an article (that refpe&ting the navigation of the Liffiffippi,) which if it could have any force or effect at all, would be on the part of Spain a dire& breach of treaty with Great Britain, and a grofs violation of the important and unquestionable rights of his Majefty and his people.

The fame ill-faith is faid to have been manifefted in the unwillingness fhewn by the British Government to adopt the plans propofed by Spain for haftening the conclufion of the war with France (but what these plans were it is not ftated); and alfo in omit ring to comply with an application, made by Spain, for pecuniary fuccours, as neceffary to enable her to act against the common enesny. The failure of fuch an application cannot certainly be matter of surprise to any one, who confiders the fituation and conduct of Spain during the war. It can hardly be alledged, even as an excufe for the precipitate peace concluded by Spain, not only without the knowledge of her allies, but in contradiction to repeated and pofitive affurances; but it is difficult to conceive how fuch a refufal can be made the ground of hoftility to

With regard to the condemnation of the St Jago (a prize taken from the enemy by his Majefty's naval forces), his Majefty has only to reply to the injurious assertions on that fubject in the Spanish manifefto, that the claims of all the parties in that caufe were publicly heard and decided according to the known law of nations, and before the only competent tribunal, and whose impartiality is above all fufpicion.

The conduct of his Majefty respecting the naval ftores, which were claimed by Spain on board Dutch veffels, has been in like manner exempt from all blame, nor was any unneceffary delay interpofed respecting those cargoes, till the equivocal conduct of Spain, and the strong and just suspicion of her hoftile difpofitions, made it impoffible for his Majefty to confent to fupply her from the ports of his dominions with the means of acting against himself.

The next charge relates to the alledged mifconduct of fome merchant ships, in landing their crews on the coafts of Chili and Peru, with a view of carrying on there an illicit commerce, and of reconnoitring the country. On this it is to be obferved, that those views are not fupported by any fact whatever ; that if any act was in truth committed by indivi duals in those territories against the laws of the government established there, thofe laws might have been enforced upon the spot; and that the Court of London has always been open to receive and redress all com plaints of that nature. But that what is af figned in the manifefto as a mere cover and pretext for fraud, namely, the exercife of the whale fishery by the English in those parts, is not, as is there afferted, a right which the English "claim under the Convention of Nootka." It is one, which was not then for the first time eftablished, but folemnly recognized by the Court of Madrid, as having always belonged to Great Britain, and the full and undisturbed exercife of which was guaranteed to his Majefty's fubjects in terms fo exprefs as to admit of no doubt, and in a tranfaction fo recent, that ignorance of it cannot be pretended.

Such, it feems, were the offences of the British Government, and fuch the jealoufies and apprehenfions of Spain, during the time when the Courts of London and Madrid, were united in the bonds of alliance, and engaged in a common saufe; and it is on motives

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as frivolous as thefe, that the Court of Madrid began to project an offenfive alliance with the King's enemies; a defign which it now profeffes to have entertained from the moment when it separated itself from the common cause, but which was long after that period disguised under the most pofitive and explicit affurances of neutrality.

It is infinuated, that the good offices of his Catholic Majefty, for bringing about a general pacification, had been tendered to Great Britain, and had been refufed. What degree of impartiality could have been expected from fuch a mediation, the difpofitions which Spain now avows herself to have entertained at that period fufficiently fhew; his Majefty exercised his undoubted right of judging for himself and for his people, how far a negotiation, commenced under fuch aufpices, was likely to contribute to the honour, and interest of his dominions; and he now finds the propriety of his decifion confirmed beyond a doubt, by the conduct and avowals. of Spain.

It is next stated, that in the profecution of the war, in which Great Britain is engaged, her views feem uniformly to have been directed to the annoyance of the Spanish pof. feflions in America. In fupport of this aceufation, are adduced an expedition directed against St Domingo, the conqueft of the Dutch colony of Demerary, and the suppos ed establishment of British commercial com panies on the Banks of the Miffouri, formed with a view of penetrating to the South Sea. This latter point is one to which it is impoffible to make a specific anfwer, because the British Government has no knowledge of any fact to which it can refer. Within the Spanish territory, the Spanish Government certainly poffeffes both the right and the power to prevent individuals from trading. Within the American territory, his Majesty's fubjects have by treaty a right to fettle and to trade; and they have alfo an exprefs right freely to navigate the Miffiffippi, by which the territories of Spain and of the United States are divided from each other. Unless, therefore, it can be shown that the British Goverment has authorized any fettlement on the Spanish territory, this complaint can afford no pretence for hoftility against his Majefty.

With regard to the expedition against St Domingo, and to the conqueft of Demerary, it is impoffible to refrain from remarking, that however highly the rights of neutral nations ought to be refpected, and whatever delicacy his Majefty might be difpofed to feel towards thofe of a power fo lately his ally, and not yet become his enemy-it is a new and hitherto unheard of claim of neutrality, which is to be circumfcribed by no bounds VOL. LVIII,

either of time or place, which extends equally beyond the date and beyond the limits of poffeffion, and is to attach not to the territories of a neutral power itself, but to whatever may once have belonged to it, and to whatever may be fituated in its neighbourhood, although in the poffeffion of an actual

enemy.

The fubject, however, of St Domingo, deferves to be more particularly adverted to, because the attempt on the part of Spain to cede a part of that ifland to France, is a breach of that folemn treaty under which alone the Crown of Spain holds any part of its American poffeffions. The conclufion of fuck an article, without the knowledge of an ally fo deeply concerned as Great Britain in that ftipulation, both in right and intereft, was therefore an act, such as would have justi fied any measures to which the Court of London could have recourse; yet so earnest was the King's desire to maintain peace with Spain, that he repeatedly endeavoured to fix, by amicable difcuffion with that Court, the period when the right of Spain, to the territory so ceded, was to sease, in order that any operation, which it might become expedient for his troops to undertake there, might be directed against the French alone: And although no explanation could ever be ob tained from the Court of Madrid on this subject, his Commanders on the spot were reftrained from acting, and did not act against the Spanish part of the island, till the ceffion actually took place, by which it became, as far as the act of Spain could make it, a part of the territories of France.

To the accufations which make up a great er part of the remainder of the manifefto, refpecting the detention or capture of merchant ships, or the violations of territory therein mentioned, it is fufficient to reply, that in every cafe of fuch a nature, which has been brought to the knowledge of the British Government, the most effectual measures have been inftantly taken for inftituting inquiry into the particulars of the transaction, for collecting the proofs neceffary to afcertain the fact on which the charge is founded, and for fubmitting the whole to that regular courfe of proceeding in which justice is to be rendered in thefe cafes, according to the eftablished practice throughout Europe, and to the exprefs ftipulations of the treaties between Great Britain and Spain.

Amidft the wide and complicated operations of a naval war, extended over every quarter of the globe, it is not improbable that fome diforders and irregularities may have taken place, which the utmost vigilance of the Government could not immediately dif cover or reprefs; and that in the excercife of the undoubted right of a power at war, to 6 M

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fearch out and to feize the property of the enemy, the rights of neutral nations may, in fome instances, have been unintentionally expofed to temporary moleftation. The fame obfervation was not lefs applicable to Spain in her war with France; and the fhort inter. val that elapfed fince her declaration against Great Britain has amply fhewn that fimilar complaints will arise from her conduct in the prefent war.

The utmost that can be demanded, in fuch cafes, of a power at war, is, that it fhould fhew itself ready, on all occafions, to liften to the remonstrances and reclamations of thofe whom it may have aggrieved, and prompt and expeditious in redreffing their injuries, and in restoring their property: And in the readiness of the British Government to fulfil thefe duties, in every cafe where they have been called upon to do fo, even Spain herself may fafely be called upon to bear witness. Nor would it be eafy to cite a more ftriking proof of the friendly difpofition of the King's Government, and of the particular attention manifefted towards the rights and interefts of Spain, than arises from an impartial examination, of the detail of what has paffed on this fubject. It will be found that the causes of complaint, whether well or ill-founded, which have been brought forward, are much fewer than ever have occurred within the fame period in former times. And the Court of Spain, when called upon to specify particulars on this head, is obliged to have recourfe to an allegation of the depredations of Corfican privateers.

There remains but one ground upon which the Court of Spain pretends to account to to the world for the rafh and perfidious ftep which it has taken in declaring war against England, and to excufe to all Europe the calamities which cannot fail to refult from fuch a meafure; the fuppofed decree of arreft afferted to have been issued against the Spanish Ambaffador at the Court of London. The fact, to which this relates, must have been grofsly mistaken, before it could be made to appear, even in the eyes of Spain, a fit motive for the flighteft reprefentation or complaint, much more a juftifiable caufe of war between the two kingdoms.

By the ftress which is laid upon this tranfaction, who is there that would not be led to imagine that the law-fuit commenced against the Spanish Ambaffador, was attended with fome peculiar circumftances of perfonal indignity? That the infult was intentional, and originated with the British Government? Or that, on being apprised of the offence, the Court of London had fhewn fome unwillingness or delay in proceeding to the profecution of the parties concerned in it?

Who but would be astonished to learn that the process itself was no more than a fimple citation to answer at law for a debt demanded? that the fhewing this process, was the mistaken act of an individual, who was immediately difavowed by the Government, and ordered to be prosecuted for his conduct, and who made (but made in vain) repeated and fubmiffive application to the Spanish Ambaffador for forgiveness and interference on his behalf? That cases of the same nature have frequently arifen in England, from the ignorance of individuals, and from the ready appeal to the laws, which the happy conftitution of the country admits and authorizes, without the previous intervention or knowledge of any branch of the Executive Government? And that in all fimilar cafes, and particularly by one which had occurred only a few weeks before, precisely the fame measures have been pursued by the Government, to vindicate the privileges of Foreign Ministers, and have uniformly and without exception been accepted as completely adequate to that object, and fatisfactory to the dignity and honour of the Sovereign whom the cafe concerned?.

Such then are the frivolous motives, and pretended wrongs, which Spain has chofen to affign as the juftification of her declaration of war against Great Britain: Such are the topics of complaint upon which his Majesty has offered the most unequivocal explanation; upon which he has long and earnestly endeavoured to perfuade the Court of Madrid to enter into a full and amicable difcuffion, for the purpose of averting from his own fubjects, from thofe of his Catholic Majefty, and from Europe, the extremities of war.

When upon grounds of fuch a nature, and with the offer of a negotiation repeatedly prefented to its choice, a power has wilfully and wantonly chofen a war, in which its profperity, its happiness, and its fafety are hazarded, and in which it will have as much to fear from the fuccefs of its allies, as from that of its enemies-it furely is not too much to prefume that, even in its own eyes, that power is not juftified even for the proceeding which it has adopted, and that there must be fome unaffigned motive of irresistible neceffity, which induces it to purfue measures a like inconfiftent with its interest and with is honour.

It will be plain to all pofterity-it is now notorious to Europe, that neither to the genuine withes, nor even to the mistakes policy of Spain, her prefent conduct is to be attributed; that not from enmity towards Great Britain, nor from any refentment of paft or apprehenfion of future injuries, but from a blind fubferviency to the views of

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