146] 
cite amore striking proof of the 
friendly disposition of the king’s 
government, and of the particular 
attention manifested towards the 
rights and interest of Spain, than 
arises from an impartial examina- 
tion of the detail of what has passed 
on this subject. It will be found 
that the causes of complaints, 
whether well or ill founded, which 
have been brought forward, are 
much fewer than ever have occurred 
within the same period in former 
times. And the court of Spain, 
when called upon to specify par- 
ticulars on this head, is obliged to 
have recourse toan allegation of 
the depredations of Corsican pri- 
yateers. 
There remains but one ground 
upou which the court of Spain 
pretends to account to the world 
for the rash andperfidious step 
which it has taken in declaring 
war against England, and to ex- 
euse to Europe the calamities 
which cannot fail to result from 
sucha measure ; the supposed de- 
cree of arrest asserted to have issued 
against the Spanish ambassador at 
the court of London. The faét, to 
which this relates, must haye been 
grossly mistaken before it could be 
made to appear, even in the eyes 
of Spain, a fit motive for the 
slightest representation or com- 
plaint, much more a justifiable 
cause of war between the two 
kingdoms. 
By the stress which is laid upon 
this transaction, who is there that 
would not be led to imagine that 
the lawesuit commenced against the 
Spanish ambassador, was attended 
with some peculiar circumstances 
of personal indignity ? That the 
result was intentional, and ori- 
ginated with the British govern- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
} 
ment.? or that; on being appriged 
of the offence, the court of Lon- 
don had shewn some unwill’ngness 
or delay in proceeding to the.prose« 
cution of the parties. concerned 
in it? 
Who but would be astonished 
to learn that the process itself was 
no more than a simple citation to 
answer at law-fur a debt demanded? 
that the suing this process was the 
mistaken act of an individual, who 
was immediately ‘disavowed by the 
government, and. ordered to be 
prosecuted for his conduét, and who 
made, (but made in vgin) repeated 
and submissive applications to the 
Spanish ambassador for forgives 
ness and interference on his be- 
half? that. cases of the same nas 
ture have frequently arisen in 
England from the ignorance of in 
dividuals, and from the ready ape 
peal to the laws which the happy 
constitution of the country admits 
and authorizes, without the pre» 
vious intervention or knowledge 
of any branch of the executive 
government ; and _ that in all si- 
milar cases, and particularly in one 
which had occurred only a few 
weeks before, precisely the same 
measures had been pursued by the 
government to vindicate the pri- 
vileges of foreign ministers, and 
have uniformly, and without ex-: 
ception, been accepted as com- 
pletely adequate to that object, 
and satisfactory to the dignity and 
honour of the sovereign whom the 
case concerned? 
Such then are the frivolous mo- 
tives, and pretended wrongs, which 
Spain bas chosen to assign as the 
justification of her declaration. of 
waragainst Great Britain. Such are 
the topics of complaint upon which 
his majesty has repeatedly offered 
the 
1 
