fell, of course, to a very insignificant sum, and the annual fair of Panama, where the goods licensed by Spain or imported directly by the government were sold, instead of being the mart of South America as it once had been, dwindled away almost to nothing. To make up for the losses she thus sustained, Spain ought to have altered her system; but she was not wise enough for this, and she endeavoured to enforce it by employing more vigour and vigilance. On our side a terrible storm was raised whenever an English ship was captured or detained, or even subjected to the search; the merchants constantly affirming either that the goods were not contraband or that the vessel had been driven upon the coast by stress of weather. There never yet was found a set of sailors of one nation that could exercise the right of search without insolence and violence, or a set of sailors of another nation that could submit to the search with moderation and temper. It appears, however, that, in consequence of the new and rigid instructions sent out from Madrid, some of the commanders of the guarda-costas became not only vigilant but excessively insolent, harsh, and cruel. The English sailors, too, had terrible traditions about the cruelties practised in former times, and hereditarily, and, as it were, constitutionally, they detested the right of the Spanish flag, and hated the Dons at sea more than they did rocks or storm, the devil or the Pretender. It was easy for the opposition to gather many an exasperating tale of oppression and barbarity, practised beyond the Western main. The one they chose is well known, but perhaps it was not the best. Burke has since called it "The Fable of Jenkyns's Ears." This Jenkyns had been skipper or master of a small vessel which ran from Jamaica, and he had been boarded and searched by a guarda-costa. Like every English skipper in the like circumstances he declared that he had no contraband goods on board, no intention to break through the jealous and harsh regulations of the Spanish government; but, he added with more than usual emphasis, that he had been most barbarously treated by the officers and crew of the guardship. He said that they had tortured him and some of his crew, had cut off one of his ears, and even told him to go and carry it to his king, and inform his majesty that they would be glad to treat him in the same manner. The circumstances thus related had occurred long before-the story was seven years old-but now, when the table of the Commons was loaded with petitions, and the city of London ringing with complaints against the barbarity of the Spaniards and the mean-spiritedness of ministers, the opposition laid hold of it, and determined to bring Jenkyns before them, in order to give increased weight and effect to his narrative. On the 16th of March it was ordered "that Captain Robert Jenkyns do attend this House immediately." On the same day they went into committee on the Spanish grievances, and heard counsel and examined several witnesses. The skipper had evidently been trained; and an recognised the British colonies in North America; answer which he gave had the turn and cadence of parliamentary oratory. Being asked by a member what he, a free-born Briton, felt when subjected to such treatment at the hands of the Spaniards, Jenkyns exclaimed-"I recommended my soul to God, and my cause to my country." Rarely in England has an oratorical point produced such effect: it stirred the parliament and the country up into fury, and Pulteney declared that we had no longer need of allies or confederacies to enable us to command justice upon Spain that Jenkyns's story alone would raise volunteers everywhere. It has been said since that Jenkyns had both his ears on at the very moment he was describing how one of them had been cut or torn from his head; and that, in the excitement produced by his narrative, people never thought of examining the rough head of the skipper-who might have worn a wig. But it appears, upon better authority, that he really had lost an ear, and that he carried a bit of one in his pocket wrapped up in cotton-but a cotemporary intimates that he had not been mutilated by the Spaniards, but at home, in the fashion of Prynne and Bastwick, i. e. that he had lost his ear in the pillory.* When the committee made its report to the House the general indignation was heightened; and Murray, afterwards Earl of Mansfield, made it rise still higher, for he was heard as counsel for the petitioners, and he supported the petition, justified the complaints, and called for vengeance upon the Spaniards, with remarkable eloquence. Pulteney then rose and delivered one of his best speeches he drew a frightful picture of Spanish cruelty and injustice, assuming the facts to have been fully proved by the witnesses the committee had examined; he stated that the British nation had the right of free navigation to every part of the American seas, provided the ships did not touch at any Spanish ports-the right of carrying all sorts of goods from one part of the British dominions to the other-the right to cut logwood in the bay of Campeachy-the right to gather salt on the island of Tortuga (which two last rights the Spaniards had always resolutely opposed, nor had the English ever enjoyed them except as exercised by buccaneers and smugglers that went to Campeachy Bay and Tortuga with arms in their hands, and cut logwood and carried away salt, because they were, pro tempore, stronger than the Spaniards); and Pulteney concluded his long speech by proposing a series of resolutions asserting these rights. Walpole did not attempt to deny that the Spaniards had given great offence; but he expressed a hope that they would yet make satisfaction. Pulteney's resolution, he said, would make matters worse-would cramp the pacific negotiations still carrying on with the court of Madrid; and he reminded the Commons that, with respect to several of the rights claimed, they had never been explicitly acknowledged by Spain except in general terms. If a treaty could do the business Tindal, Hist. Eng. without the horrors of war, he was for continuing the negotiation, though it might, as usual, be somewhat tedious; but he added that, if he saw their object was not to be obtained otherwise, he was ready to demand and obtain it by force. "But still," said he, "I think, if proper satisfaction and full reparation can be obtained by peaceable means, we ought not to involve the nation in a war, from the event of which we have a great deal to fear; and the utmost we can hope for from the most uninterrupted success is a proper satisfaction for past injuries, and a proper security against our meeting with any such hereafter." In the course of prolonged debates he replied to the charge which had long been made against him, that his love of peace proceeded merely from his love of place, and that he avoided war, and was ready to tolerate any injury or affront offered to the nation, solely because he knew that a change in our foreign policy would lead to a change of ministers. "I have always," said he, " disregarded a popularity that was not acquired by a hearty zeal for the public interest, and I have been long enough in this House to see that the most steady opposers of popularity founded upon any other views have lived to receive the thanks of their country for that opposition." His experience he said proved to him that a cabinet was as likely to last in war-time as in a time of peace. Nay," he added, "if we are to judge by reason alone, it is the interest of a minister, conscious of any mismanagement, that there should be a war, because by a war the eyes of the public are diverted from examining into his conduct." He proposed several amendments in a mild spirit, agreeing, however, to declare that the Spaniards had unjustly interfered with the freedom of navigation and commerce, had committed depredations attended with many instances of unheard-of cruelty and barbarity; that the court of Madrid had been exceedingly backward in giving satisfaction to his majesty's injured subjects and bringing the offenders to condign punishment; that the orders or cedulas. granted by the King of Spain for restitution and reparation had been disobeyed by the Spanish governors, or totally evaded or eluded; and that all these violences and depredations were in direct violation of existing treaties. His amendments were carried; but Alderman Perry, who had been chairman of the committee, proposed and carried a very warlike address, beseeching the king to use his endeavours to obtain prompt and effectual redress, and pledging the House to support his majesty in a war if his negotiations were not presently attended with full success. Upper House Chesterfield and Carteret went more into extremes than Pulteney; and a majority of the Lords voted with them, and passed resolutions, absolutely denying the right of search as practised by the Spaniards on the coast of South America, &c. Their lordships also voted an address, promising effectual support if his majesty should have recourse to war. The king replied to the address of the Lords in a very warlike tone. Pulteney, In the who undertook the chief management of the business, because he hoped that a war would raise him to Walpole's seat, brought in a bill for effectually securing and encouraging our trade to Americaa strange bill, which one might almost fancy had been drawn up by a band of buccaneers, as, by its most important clause, the sailors were to keep everything they could get, and to appropriate all property found under the Spanish flag, without reference to the rights of the French, the Dutch, and other trading nations of Europe. The bill, in fact, if carried, would have converted the English nation into one great buccaneering power. It must have given such an alarm to the French for their property, which was often even greater than that of the Spaniards on board the galleons or plate-fleet, that they would hardly have hesitated to take part with Spain and join her with their whole naval force. Walpole made use of other arguments equally strong, and Pulteney's bill was negatived by a large majority. Parliament rose a few days after, but the prorogation brought no quiet to the minister, whose pacific disposition continued to be reviled by the mass of the nation, and whose party enemies carried on fifty intrigues at once, but all concentrating in two objects-the declaration of a war and the downfall of the ministry. The king himself, passionately fond of his army, longed to distinguish it; the wisdom and moderation of Queen Caroline were gone, and several of Walpole's colleagues or subordinates had, for some time and for various reasons, taken up the war cry. This was more particularly the case with the Duke of Newcastle, one of the secretaries of state, who had been entertaining hopes, ever since the death of the queen, to supplant Walpole, who, as the duke and others understood it, monopolised far too large a portion of the power and profits of the state. The premier, however, still clung to his pacific measures and pressed his negotiations with the court of Madrid; but, at the same time, to show that he could and might make war, he sent Admiral Haddock into the Mediterranean with ten ships of the line, sent many single ships to the West Indies, offered letters of marque and reprisal to the merchants, supplied the infant colony of Georgia with troops and stores, and directed the British merchants in the several sea-ports of Spain to register their goods before notaries public, in case of a rupture. These things and the proceedings and speeches in the British parliament made the Spaniards somewhat more modest and humble. They liberated some prizes they had captured, sent home some English sailors that had been taken by guarda costas, and declared that they would hasten the consideration of the English claims for reparation. On our side it was admitted that certain sums were due to Spain, but on striking a balance it was made to appear that there remained due to England 140,000. The Spaniards tried to reduce this balance, but finally they agreed to pay it by assignments upon the revenues of their American colonies. It was represented to VOL. IV. Walpole that if our debt was to be paid in that quarter it would not be liquidated for many a year perhaps never paid at all; and the minister was therefore induced to agree to receive in prompt payments in Europe 95,000/. in lieu of the 140,000l. in America. Having settled the sum and the mode of payment, a convention was signed on the 14th of January (1739), at Madrid, by Mr. Keene and La Quadra. This convention stipulated that the 95,000l. should be paid within four months from the date of the ratification; that the mutual discharge of claims should not extend to any existing differences or balances between Spain and the English South Sea Company as holders of the Assiento contract; that within six weeks two English plenipotentiaries should meet two Spanish plenipotentiaries at Madrid, to regulate the rights of trade and navigation, and settle the boundaries of Carolina and Florida, all which they were to do within eight months. La Quadra, who signed this convention, had insisted all along that the English South Sea Company owed his master 68,000l., and had declared that the convention could not be ratified until Philip got that money. Mr. Keene, on the other hand, had maintained that the government of England and the South Sea Company were entirely distinct, and that the government could not control the company; but he declared that, if it should be proved there was really a debt of 68,000l. owing to his Catholic majesty, he would undertake that it should be honourably discharged. La Quadra chose to consider this as a positive promise that the 68,000/. should be paid before the execution of the articles; and at the very moment they were signing the convention he delivered to Keene a declaration or protest, purporting that his Spanish majesty reserved to himself the right of suspending the Assiento treaty, unless the South Sea Company satisfied his claims forthwith. The English negotiator was greatly embarrassed, but he went on to sign the convention notwithstanding, and even consented to receive the protest, though without admitting its demands, but merely as referring them to the consideration of the British cabinet. A.D. 1739.-Parliament assembled on the 1st of February, when George in his speech from the throne mentioned the ratification of the convention, and stated that the King of Spain had agreed to make reparation, and that plenipotentiaries had been appointed to regulate within a limited time all the grievances and abuses which had interrupted our commerce and navigation in the American seas, &c. "If," said the king, "all the ends which are to be hoped for even from successful arms can be attained without plunging the nation into a war, it must be thought by all reasonable and unprejudiced persons the most desirable event." But the nation had been filled with a dream of war, conquest, and revenge; and the convention, even interpreted in its best sense, was not a peace or a security for peace—it was not, in 3 к fact, even so much as a good preliminary to a treaty, seeing how it was hampered by the protest. The opposition, in both Houses, fell upon its weak and bad parts, and Sir William Wyndham moved that in the address everything like an approbation of the convention should be carefully struck out. Walpole said that at all events an opening to a peace was better than the beginning of a warthat, if he had declared war, the very men that were now reviling him and his peace would be engaged in attacking him and his war-that he would tell the world that a trading people ought by all manner of means to avoid war-that any peace was preferable even to a successful war; and his original address was carried by a large majority. But when the articles of the convention were laid before parliament, the ministerial majority of 234 against 141 dropped suddenly to "a miserable baker's dozen," or to thirteen. As under no point of view the convention was or could be more than a preliminary, there was not a word in it about the right of search, about the limits of Georgia, which Spain claimed almost in toto, or indeed about any of the more difficult of the points in dispute. And now, without heeding the nature of that diplomatic instrument, people in the House and out of the House exclaimed and clamoured as if the document was a final one, as if England had given up the pretension of being exempted from search, renounced her claims to Georgia, &c. And, as if this were not excitement enough, there was a clause in the convention that Spain was to be allowed 60,000l. for the ships taken by Admiral Byng off the coast of Sicily in the year 1718. This, they said, was paying the enemy for our victories-was giving them back more than they had lost! Of course the opposition took no heed of the peculiar circumstances attending Byng's battle off Cape Passaro, or of the facts that, in an article in the peace of Madrid, concluded during the administration of Sunderland, a mutual restitution was promised, that this promise had been confirmed by England in the more recent treaty of Seville, and that Spain had never foregone her claim. In the Upper House the Duke of Argyll, who had been wavering for some time, went openly into opposition; Chesterfield and Carteret continued and improved their declamations; and the Prince of Wales, the mortal enemy of Walpole, took this occasion of giving his first vote in parliament. The minister, by the mouth of Lord Cholmondeley, moved an address to thank his majesty for concluding the convention; to express a reliance that, in continuing the negotiations, care would be taken to secure our trade and navigation in the American seas; and to promise that, if these negotiations should not answer his majesty's just expectations, the House would support him in vindicating the honour of his crown and the rights of England originally claimed from Spain 200,000l.; this reduction of 60,000!. for the Spanish ships brought the sum down to the 140,000!, agreed upon; and 45,000l. as a discount for prompt payment finally reduced the amount to be actually paid by Spain to 95,000/, his people. This, after a long debate, was carried, but by a majority of only thirteen-fifty-eight lords, with the Prince of Wales at their head, voting against the minister. The same address was moved in the Commons by the premier's brother Horace, who spoke for two hours, and explained with tolerable fairness the real meaning of the convention. He insisted that nothing had been done to commit the honour of the country; that the great questions remained open; that there was nothing in them but might be settled by diplomacy; that to treat was better than to fight; that from the state of things in Europe England had not one ally upon whom she could count, while France was sure to take part with Spain; that in eight months a definitive treaty might be obtained. Sir Thomas Sanderson, who spoke first in reply to Horace Walpole, thought that nothing could go right till we had made war, and taken vengeance for the mutilating of Jenkyns's ear; and he vehemently proclaimed that the fellow-the pirate-the monster-that had done the deed, was now enjoying the fruits of his rapine-a living testimony of the cowardly tameness and mean submission of Great Britain, and of the triumphant pride and stubborn haughtiness of Spain. Lord Gage, leaving Jenkyns's ear in its owner's pocket, declaimed with almost equal heat upon the reduction of the balance due by Spain, which, his lordship said, ought to pay 340,000l. at the very least. Young William Pitt, who was already making himself known, and meriting from Walpole the designation of "that terrible cornet of horse," asked whether we had not wholly lost our nationality. "Is this," cried he, "any longer a nation? Or what is an English parliament if, with more ships in our harbours than in all the nations of Europe, with above two millions of people in our American colonies, we will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable convention?" From the date of this speech the tongue of William Pitt awed or commanded the House of Commons. In its abstract points few questions could have been better suited to a young and enthusiastic orator: the freedom of the seas, the might and right of the British flag, the jealousy of Spain and her inhuman policy, were subjects that never yet failed to excite the English people. After speaking of the merely financial part of the business and the suspension of the Assiento, Pitt maintained that Spain had imposed her conditions in the most absolute, imperious manner, and that England had submitted to them most tamely and abjectly. "Can any verbal distinction," said he, can any evasions whatever, possibly explain away this public infamy? To whom would we disguise it? To ourselves and to the nation? I wish we could hide it from every court in Europe! They see Spain has talked to you like your master; they see this arbitrary fundamental condition, and it must stand with distinction, with a pre-eminence of shame, as a part even of this convention. This convention, Sir, I think 66 66 SO from my soul, is nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy; an illusory expedient to baffle the resentment of the nation; a truce without a suspension of hostilities on the part of Spain; on the part of England a suspension as to Georgia of the first law of nature, self-preservation and selfdefence; a surrender of the rights and trade of England to the mercy of plenipotentiaries; and on this infinitely highest and sacred point, future security, not only inadequate but directly repugnant to the resolutions of parliament and the gracious promise of the throne. The complaints of your despairing merchants-the voice of England has condemned it. Be the guilt of it upon the head of the adviser: God forbid that this committee should share the guilt by approving it!" Littleton observed that the grievances of England admitted but of one remedy, and that a very short and simple one-her ships should never be searched by the Spaniards, or by any other power, upon any pretence whatever. He said that even as a preliminary the convention was disgraceful, and the very worst result that could have been produced by the most ruinous war. "Let us, then, reject it with scorn," he continued, that to all we have suffered before, to all the accumulated insults ever heaped upon a nation, a worse dishonour may not be added, and that dishonour fall upon the parliament." Walpole, who spoke last in the debate, urged in reply that the convention laid the foundation for a good definitive treaty; that he held it to be his greatest boast at present, as it would be his greatest honour in succeeding times, to be named as the minister who had endeavoured by this convention to prevent the necessity of making war upon a nation with whom it was our greatest interest to be at peace, at a time, too, when we could not hope to be assisted by any power, but might reasonably apprehend being attacked by several. He repeated again and again his fundamental maxim-that peace was better than war, and that, England being a trading nation, the prosperity of her trade ought always to be the principal object. Admitting even that the convention had not answered all the expectations of the House, they ought still to consider whether a declaration of war would answer those expectations any better, whether we had a fair prospect of success, and particularly whether even a successful war with Spain might not involve us in a very doubtful and expensive war with other powers. He spoke of the obligations, contracted in former treaties, of our submitting to and acknowledging the right of Spain to regulate her own colonies in her own way; and after other arguments he expressed a hope that parliament would sanction the convention. On a division he found himself supported by a majority, but by a very slender one-260 being for him, and 232 against him. On the next day Pulteney resumed the attack, and was supported by Wyndham; but the motion for a recommitment of the address was negatived by 244 against 214. Wyndham, who was still following the advice of Bolingbroke, then rose, and with great solemnity announced his intention of taking his leave of the House of Commons. "I have seen,' said he, "this shameful, this fatal measure approved of by a majority of but twentyeight, and I now rise to pay my last duty to my country as a member of this House." He said he had entertained hopes that the unanswerable arguments urged in the debate against the convention might have prevailed upon gentlemen to have for once listened to the dictates of reason, to have for once distinguished themselves from being a faction against the liberties and properties of their fellow-subjects; that those hopes had been the stronger since he had never found one single person out of doors that pretended to justify the dishonouring convention. He added-" The majority of this House must, then, proceed either from their being determined by arguments that we have not heard, or from my wanting common sense to comprehend the force of those we have heard. In the first case I think I cannot, with honour, sit in an assembly which is determined by motives which I am not at liberty to mention; and, if the last is the case, I look upon myself as a very unfit person to serve as a senator. I here, Sir, bid a final adieu to this House. Perhaps when another parliament shall succeed, I may be again at liberty to serve my country in the same capacity. I therefore appeal to a future, free, uninfluenced House of Commons. Let it be the judge of my conduct and of that of my friends on this occasion." Pelham was so incensed at the insult offered to the House, and the calling of the ministerial majority a corrupt faction, that he was rising to move for Wyndham's commitment to the Tower; but Walpole stopped him, and said, with quite as much warmth as the Tory or Jacobite orator, that the measures that that gentleman and his friends might pursue gave him no uneasiness. "The friends of the nation," said he, "and this House are obliged to them for pulling off the mask, by making this public declaration. We can be upon our guard against open rebellion, but it is difficult to guard against secret traitors. The faction I speak of never sat in this House, they never joined in any public measure of the government, but with a view to distress it, and serve a popish interest. The gentleman who is now the mouth of this faction was looked upon as the head of those traitors who, twenty-five years ago, conspired the destruction of their country and of the royal family, to set a popish pretender upon the throne. He was seized by the vigilance of government, and pardoned by its clemency; but all the use he ungratefully made of that clemency has been to qualify himself according to law, that he and his party may, some time or other, have an opportunity to overthrow all law. I am only afraid that they will not be so good as their word, and that they will return; for I remember that, in the case of their favourite prelate, who was impeached of treason, the same gentleman and his faction made the same |