Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/157

Rh three years contended that that province belonged to the King, it would have been a contradiction to say in the treaty that the United States ceded it to his Majesty, the same thing being obtained by the terms in which it is expressed, the limits that adjudge it to his Majesty being fixed, and the United States expressly renouncing all rights which they had or can have to it. This charge, with which they have sought to obscure the advantages or dis- advantages of the treaty, is a new triumph to the nation, which is the only object I have always had in view.

As the treaty had been executed by me in conformity with the instructions which had been given to me by the prime minister of State, and as it moreover contained various stipulations of notorious advantage to the nation, it was not to be expected, that after its conclusion, a discussion would have been entered into to examine whether these instructions had been well or ill planned. Don Juan Esteban Lozano de Torres, and the ministers who support his opinion, could not be ignorant of these facts; but as some pretext was necessary to carry on their plans, they pretended that England, displeased at the cession of the Floridas, would take from us the island of Cuba, if the treaty were ratified, and that, upon the whole, it was better to let the Americans take them by force than to cede them, since by this means the grant of lands to the Duke