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Rh The incapacity of the predecessors of Chatham had encouraged the two ministers in their aggressive designs. George Grenville, according to Johnson, "had powers not universally possessed; could he have enforced payment of the Manilla Ransom, he could have counted it," but how to enforce payment of it was beyond his comprehension. To Chatham these delays were intolerable. Aware of the hostile intentions of France and Spain, he attempted to form a great northern alliance for defensive purposes, and confiding this negotiation to Conway, Sir Andrew Mitchell and Mr. Stanley, he instructed Shelburne to insist on the immediate settlement of the outstanding claims of England against France and Spain. Shelburne himself was keenly desirous to preserve the Peace of 1763, towards the conclusion of which he had himself contributed, but he had also a keen sense of the honour of the country. He informed Masserano, the Spanish Ambassador, of "the steady resolution of the King's servants to insist on the just claim of his subjects to the ransom of Manilla, and with the unalterable sentiments of His Majesty and his ministers on the equity of his demand," adding "that if the Spaniards in talking of their possessions included the American and Southern Seas, and our navigating these gave occasion to them to suspect a war, he had no hesitation to say that he would advise one, if they insisted on renewing such a vague and strange pretension long since worn out." Similar