parted both to Parliament and to the public. "We have 66 no need of allies to enable us to command justice," cried Pulteney; "the story of Jenkins will raise volun"teers."* 66 On his part, Walpole did not deny that great outrages and injuries had been wrought by the Spaniards, but he expressed his hope that they might still admit of full and friendly compensation; he promised his strenuous exertions with the Court of Madrid, and he besought the House not to close the avenue to peace by any intemperate proceedings, and especially by denouncing altogether the right of search, which the Spaniards had so long exercised, and would hardly be persuaded to relinquish. The charge, that his love of peace was merely a selfish zeal for his own administration, he repelled with disdain: "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. For my part, I never could see any cause, either from reason or my own experience, to 66 imagine that a Minister is not as safe in time of war as " in time of peace. Nay, 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 ex"amining into his conduct; nor is he accountable for "the bad success of a war, as he is for that of an ad"ministration."+ By the ascendency of Walpole a large majority of the Commons continued to withstand the manifold proposals and attacks of Pulteney. But in the Lords, the eloquence of Carteret and Chesterfield, feebly stemmed by the Ministerial speakers, carried some strong Resolutions, which were presented as an Address to the Crown. 66 66 But these Parliamentary difficulties, however great, were not the only ones that beset the Minister. He had *Speech, May 15. 1738. Parl. Hist. vol. x. p. 850. also to struggle against the waywardness and falsehood of the Spanish Envoy, Thomas Fitzgerald, or, as he was commonly called, Don Thomas Geraldino, who caballed with the Opposition in private, and held most intemperate language in public. The whole progress of the negotiations, and several other state secrets were disclosed by this agent to the party out of power, while he openly declared in all companies that the English Ministers were trifling with and imposing upon the people in pretending that the Court of Spain might yet be brought to any terms, or would recede in the slightest degree from its colonial rights and privileges. To such an extent did he carry this behaviour, that Walpole sent a formal complaint to the Ministers at Madrid. Geraldino on his part assured them that the views of Walpole, though professedly pacific, were in truth inconsistent with the security of the Spanish trade, and that they could not be more effectually served than by fomenting to the utmost the discontents and divisions in England; and by these representations he continued to retain their confidence and his employment.* Another source of embarrassment to Walpole was the conduct of his own colleague, the Duke of Newcastle. Both of them loved power with their whole hearts, but with this difference; Walpole loved it so well that he would not bear a rival; Newcastle so well that he would bear any thing for it. Under Stanhope's Government he had professed unbounded admiration and friendship for that Minister. Immediately on the death of Stanhope he had transferred the same sentiment and submission to the Walpoles, and became Secretary of State in 1724, as their deputy and agent. But though willing to accept even the smallest morsel of authority, it was only till he could grasp at a larger. A favourable conjuncture of circumstances seemed now to open to him by the death of Queen Caroline, the growing unpopularity of Walpole, *Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 368. †Thus, for instance, he writes to Mr. Charles Stanhope from Claremont, July 29. 1720, "Pray send me what news there is, and particularly what comes from my dearest friend Stanhope. He is always doing good, and always successful," &c. Coxe's MSS. British Museum. 66 66 Such a war, and the loud clamour for a Spanish war. he found, was congenial to the military spirit of the King: it was also, as we have seen, eagerly pressed in Parliament; and of these wishes, accordingly, Newcastle, though still with great caution, made himself the mouthpiece in the Cabinet. With the consent or connivance of His Majesty, he sent angry instructions and memorials to the British Minister in Spain, which it required all the skill of Walpole to modify and temper; and which greatly aggravated the difficulties of the negotiations. The same leaning to warlike measures was likewise shown, but, as I believe, on more public-spirited grounds, by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and by Lord Harrington. The former, on one occasion, speaking in the House of Lords, inveighed with so much vehemence against the Spanish depredations, that Walpole, who was standing behind the throne, could not forbear exclaiming to those around him, "Bravo! "Colonel Yorke, bravo!" Nor durst Walpole at this crisis, with the inclinations of both King and people against him, pursue his usual haughty course, and at once cashier his wavering colleagues. Through these and many other obstacles derived from the pride of Spain, did Walpole pursue his negotiation with the Government at Madrid (for the Court had now returned from Seville), and still endeavour to prevent an appeal to arms. He took care, however, to give weight to his pacific overtures by displaying his readiness for war. A squadron of ten ships of the line, under the command of Admiral Haddock, sailed for the Mediterranean; many single ships were despatched to the West Indies; letters of marque and reprisal were offered to the merchants; and the colony of Georgia was supplied with troops and stores to resist the Spaniards, who had threatened to invade it from St. Augustine. Directions were likewise sent to the British merchants in the several seaports of Spain, to register their goods with a notary public in case of a rupture. Such demonstrations were not lost upon the Spaniards, who, lowering their tone, gave orders that several prizes they had captured should be restored, and that seventy-one English sailors taken by Guarda Costas, and confined at Cadiz, should be sent home. New instructions likewise came out to Geraldino, and he de livered a message purporting that his master was inclined to enter into terms for conciliating past differences, and for preventing them in future. The negotiations that ensued were carried on first between Geraldino and Walpole in London, and afterwards between Mr. Keene and the Spanish Minister, Don Sebastian de la Quadra, at Madrid. The mutual demands for damages sustained in commerce were compared and balanced, and those of England upon Spain, after the deduction, were fixed at 200,000l. On the other hand, the Spaniards urged a claim of 60,000l. for the ships taken by Admiral Byng in 1718, a claim which had been left doubtful during Stanhope's administration, but which was, at least in its principle, acknowledged in the treaty of Seville. The remaining balance in favour of England was therefore 140,000l. which the Court of Madrid proposed to pay by assignments upon the American revenues. But the English Ministers, knowing the tediousness and uncertainty of that fund, preferred to make an allowance for prompt payment at home; and the allowance agreed upon was 45,000l. thus reducing the sum due from Spain to 95,000l.* The sum being thus determined, a Convention was founded upon it, and finally signed by Keene and La Quadra on the 14th of January 1739. It stipulated that this money should be paid within four months from the date of the ratification; that this mutual discharge of claims should not however extend to any differences between the Crown of Spain and the South Sea Company, as holders of the Asiento contract; that within six weeks two plenipotentiaries from each side should meet at Madrid, to regulate the pretensions of the two Crowns, as to rights of trade, and as to the limits of Carolina and Florida; that their conferences should finish within eight months; and that in the meantime no progress should be made in the fortifications of either province. Such is the famous Convention. Omitting, as it did, all mention of the Right of Search, and reserving the most intricate matters for subsequent negotiation, it was See the statement of Horace Walpole in the House of Commons, March 8. 1739. Parl. Hist. vol. x. 1246-1258. rather a preliminary to a treaty than a treaty itself; but it had the merit of satisfying the most urgent claims, and of providing for the rest a just and speedy decision. In its progress, however, it became clogged and entangled with another claim. La Quadra had always maintained that 68,000l. was due to his master from the South Sea Company with respect to the Asiento contract, and declared that the Convention should not be ratified unless that money were paid. Mr. Keene, in answer, observed that the Government of England and the South Sea Company were entirely distinct, and that the one had no control upon the other; but he added, that if 68,000l. should be proved as really owing, he would undertake that the debt should be discharged. This La Quadra affected to consider as a positive and unconditional promise; and, on the very point of signing the Convention, delivered to Keene and sent to Geraldino a formal protest, declaring that His Catholic Majesty reserved to himself the right of suspending the Asiento, unless the sum of 68,000l. should be speedily paid by the South Sea Company. The British Envoy was much embarrassed; but at length, knowing the anxiety of Walpole to come to some conclusion before the meeting of Parliament, he consented to sign the Convention, notwithstanding the protest, and to receive the latter, not as admitting its demands, but merely as referring them to the future consideration of his Government. The Convention being transmitted to London, was announced to Parliament, with "great satisfaction," in the King's opening speech. Yet, even before its terms were distinctly understood, a strong spirit of opposition appeared against it; and even Sir John Barnard condescended to such wretched cavils as the following: The King's speech had stated that plenipotentiaries would meet for regulating all the grievances and abuses which interrupted our commerce in the American seas; now to regulate abuses, said Barnard, implies a continuance of them, but only under another form!" It requires no 66 great art, no great abilities in a Minister," exclaimed Walpole, "to pursue such measures as might make a war "unavoidable. That is a very easy matter; but, Sir, how many Ministers have you had, who knew the art of 66 |