96] ANNUAL RE 
remarked, that however natural it 
might be to look with concern upon 
the circumftances ftated in his ma- 
jefty’s meflage, and ail the fature pof- 
&ble occurrences to which it might 
lead, he conceived that he fhould 
pot do juftice to the feelings and 
public {pirit of that honfe, if he en- 
tertained, for a moment, an idea 
that there could arife any difference 
of opinion as to the meafures which 
fuch circumftances would make it 
neceflary to-adopt. ‘I‘here was no 
occafion for him to enlarge upon 
the facts ftated in his majefly’s mef- 
faze; the bare mention of them (he 
was perfuaded) would prove fufficient 
to induce the honfe to give their 
concurrence to the addrefs with 
which he fhould move. Thefe faéts 
were: that his majelty’s fubjeéts 
had been forcibly interrupted in a 
trade which they had carried on, 
for years, without moleftaticn, in 
parts of America where they ‘had 
an incontrovertible right of trad- 
ing, and in) places to which no 
country could claim an exclufive 
right of. commerce and navigation : 
that this interruption had been 
made by a feizure of two fhips, their 
cargo and companies, without any 
previcus notice : that the oificers 
and crews of thofe vefiels had been 
carried to a Spanifh port as prifon- 
ers of war, and.the cargoes of the 
vefiels appropriated to the ufe of 
the capters, without even the form 
ef condemnation. er judicature, 
which has always been deemed ne- 
ecflary, even _im ‘times of war.—He 
wifhed to abftain from every word 
of aggravation; the ftatement of 
thefe fats was. fiifficient.to induce 
a Britith howe of commons to de- 
mand ample refitution to the-indi- 
GISTER, 1796.., 
viduals injured, and full fatisfattion 
to the nation for its infulted he- 
nour. 4t was true, that one of the 
veflels had beén delivered up by the 
viceroy of Mexico, but no fatisfac- 
tion to the nation had thereby been 
given; on the contrary, the court 
of Madrid had advanced a claim to 
the exclufive right of navigation in 
thofe feas, that ‘was unfounded and 
exorbitant, indefinite in its confe- 
quences, aiming deftruétion to our 
valuable fifheries in the fouthern 
ocean, and tending to the annihi- 
lation of a commerce in its infancy, 
which we were juit beginning to 
carry on to the profit of the coun- | 
try, in hitherto unfrequented parts 
of the globe; it was therefore ne- 
ceflary and incumbent’ upon the 
nation to adopt fuch meafures as 
might in future prevent any fuch 
difputes. When, in addition to 
this condu& on the part of Spain, 
the houfe were alfo acquainted, 
by the mefiage, of the vigorous 
preparations making in the dif-_ 
ferent fea-ports of that kingdom, 
there could not be a doubt of the 
propriety of our preparing to act 
with vigour and effect in fupport 
of the honour of his majefty’s crown, 
land the interefts of his people. At 
the fame time the houfe, he was 
confident, would heartily agree in © 
his majelly’s with, that the prefent ~ 
difpute micht be terminated amica- _ 
bly, and that we fhould not be © 
driven to the neceffity of having re-— 
courié te meafures of hoftihity. i 
Mr. Pitt concluded by moving 
an addrefs in the ufual form *, which 
being feconded by Mr. Grenville, 
Mr. Fox .rofe, and faid, he fhould 
give his vote moft heartily-for the 
addrefs, in which he believed the | 
® Sée Siaté Papers, 
