Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/455

1739.] pursued his efforts with the court of Spain for peaceable conclusions, at the same time that he fell in so far with the belligerent spirit as to make active preparations, as if for an encounter. This, however, was his last and most powerful argument for peace — an argument meant to tell on the fears, as he could not reach a spirit of conciliation in the Spaniards.

He dispatched a squadron of tea ships of the line to the Mediterranean, under admiral Haddock; another strong squadron sailed for the West Indies; letters of marque and reprisal were issued to the merchants; and troops and stores were forwarded to Georgia, which the Spaniards had threatened to invade. He gave directions to all merchants in Spanish ports to register their goods with a public notary in case of a rupture. Those measures produced a vapid change of tone at the Spanish court. Orders were issued for liberating and sending home seventy-one English sailore, who had been taken by Guarda Costas; and Geraldino was instructed to say that his Spanish majesty was ready to enter into negotiations for settling all past differences, and for preventing all future ones. The terms of this negotiation were discussed, first betwixt Walpole and Geraldino in London, and afterwards by Mr. Keene and the Spanish minister, La Quadra, at Madrid. On comparing the demands on both sides for damages sustained in commerce, there appeared a balance in favour of England of two hundred thousand pounds. Besides this, the Spaniards demanded sixty thousand pounds in compensation for the ships taken by admiral Byng in 1718 — a claim which Stanhope would never allow, but which had been recognised in the treaty of Seville, and was now, therefore, allowed. This reduced the sum to a hundred and forty thousand pounds, which the Spanish court proposed should be paid by assignments on the American revenues. This, the ministers were well aware, might involve the most endless delays and uncertainties, and they certainly showed a most conceding spirit by allowing a deduction of forty-five thousand pounds for prompt payment at Madrid. The sum was now reduced to ninety-five thousand pounds; and this being agreed to, a convention was signed by Keene and La Quadra on the 14th of January, 1739. It was stipulated that it should be paid in four months from the date of the ratification. There was another sum of sixty-eight thousand pounds which La Quadra asserted was due to the king of Spain from the South Sea Company; but Keene explained that the king had nothing whatever to do with the debts of the South Sea Company; and it was settled that, in the discharge of these claims, those of the South Sea Company should not be taken into consideration. Within six weeks two plenipotentiaries on both sides were to meet at Madrid to settle all the matter's betwixt the two powers regarding the rights of to-day, as well as to the limits of Carolina and Florida, during which time no progress was to be made in the fortifications of either province.

In this convention no mention was made of the right of search, and various other matters were reserved for the consideration of the plenipotentiaries. When the convention was announced to parliament by the king in his opening speech, there arose a general denunciation of it both in and out of parliament. The right of search was declared to be purposely sacrificed; the limits of Georgia left undefined; and the Spanish captains in the West Indies left unpunished for all their cruelties. That sixty-eight thousand pounds should be allowed for compensation for ships taken by admiral Byng in 1718 was very justly declared taxing us for our victories. In fact, Walpole, in this treaty, seems ready to give up everything to Spain, knowing, probably, how hopeless it was to extract money from that country, and glad of an excuse of any set-off against our claims as the easiest way of settling them. But all did not avail him. The more conceding he was to the Spaniards the more immovable they became, whilst the public at home were enraged at the tameness displayed by ministers. Ministers found their majority continually on the wane. Chesterfield and Carteret attacked the address to his majesty, in which the house of lords was made to say that it trusted care would be taken to secure our trade in the American seas, and to assure his majesty that the parliament would support him in such endeavours. The duke of Argyll went over to the opposition, and the prince of Wales gave his first vote in parliament in the amendment on the address. On a division, seventy-one peers voted for the address, and fifty-eight against it.

A still more determined assault was made on the address in the commons. Horace Walpole introduced it in an elaborate speech of two hours, but no sooner did he sit down than there commenced a fierce criticism on the convention. Sir Thomas Saunderson complained that it was a testimony of the most truckling meanness on the part of the English government that the captain who cut off Jenkins' ear was still at large. Lord Gage was vehement on the miserable amount of compensation consented to; lord Lyttleton was equally eloquent on the right of search; and William Pitt, in a most powerful speech, declared that the convention was nothing but a stipulation for national injury; an illusory expedient to baffle the resentment of the nation; a truce without a suspension of hostilities on the part of Spain; a surrender of the rights and trade of England to the mercy of plenipotentiaries; a security not only inadequate, but decidedly repugnant to the resolutions of parliament and the promises from the throne. Ou the division the ministers' majority had dwindled to twenty-eight, namely, two hundred and sixty votes against two hundred and thirty-two.

But that there should be a majority at all on such a question brought the opposition to try an experiment which they had been for some time planning. This was the absurd scheme of seceding in a body from the house of commons, on the plea that a paid and standing majority rendered all reason and argument nugatory. That might, to a certain extent, be true; but to renounce the opportunity of exposing the state of things to the whole nation was to leave the majority in unmolested possession of their power, without a voice to proclaim evil when it was done. They hoped by this proceeding to excite the nation to such a ferment in defence of its violated rights as should drive ministers out of office. But all such attempts have proven failures, because removing the watchdogs does not remove the thieves. The motion of Horace Walpole was carried in committee; and on the report of it being brought up, another division being carried, Pulteney spoke in strong terms against the convention, and then Wyndham rose, and declared that it was useless sitting longer in that house; that "in a future