14 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



Lord ISIulgravc rose, and after stat- 

 ing the wish of the government to put 

 the house in possession of every docu- 

 ment which could tend to afibrd the 

 fullest information on the subject, 

 proceeded to draw a comparison be- 

 tween the treaty concluded between 

 the French and Spanish branches of 

 the house of Buurboii, in 1761, 

 commonly known by the name of 

 the family compact, and the last 

 treaty between France and Spain, 

 concluded at St. Ildefonso. The 

 former respected the law of nations, 

 in making an equal relative stipula- 

 tion between the parties ; whereas 

 the latter, the stronger power dic- 

 tated every thing, deprived the 

 weaker power of its sovereignty, 

 and identified it at once with the 

 weaker party. On the late occa- 

 sion, however, England was desir- 

 ous, after the rupture with France, 

 to interfere as little as possible with 

 the terms of that treaty, until the 

 jvar with Spain becoming unavoida- 

 ble, it became necessary to know 

 how far the court of Madrid held 

 itself bound to adhere to the letter 

 of the stipulations of that treaty, to 

 which the Prince of Peace (the real 

 governor of the country) returned 

 only vague and inconclusive an- 

 swers. [The speech of the noble lord 

 was extended to an extreme length, 

 on account of the numerous refe- 

 rences he made to the various docu- 

 ments upon the table, and the trans, 

 actions that took place in the dif- 

 ferent stages of the negociation.] In 

 proof of the moderation and for- 

 hearance of the British government, 

 te stated its acquiescence in the 

 substitution of a pecuniary sup])ly 

 by tlie court of Spain, for the con- 

 tingent stipulated by treaty, though 

 l)y a refertnre to several treaties of 

 subsidy, which he quoted, it would 



be found, upon calculation, thaith« 

 amount of the pecuniary supply 

 furnished by Spain, would cover a 

 greater number of troops than Spain 

 w as able to muster, and was, in fact, 

 more than eight times an equivalent 

 for the number of men stipulated in 

 the treaty with France. The vigi- 

 lance of our government, however^ 

 became the more necessary, when it 

 was discovered that French soldiers 

 were clandestinely allowed to march 

 through Spain, and naval armaments 

 were to a certain extent going for- 

 ward. He then touched on the me- 

 naces against our ally Portugal ; the 

 sale of prizes in a manner little short 

 of piracy ; the armaments at Ferrol, 

 and the evasive answer of M. d'An- 

 duaga, that they were to suppress 

 an insurrection that had broken out 

 at Ferrol, and the refusal of any sa- 

 tisfactdry answer to the demand that 

 Spain should reduce its naval arma- 

 ments to the state they were in at tho 

 breaking out of hostilities between 

 Great Britain and France. That 

 court did not even disown the pre- 

 ponderating influence of the French 

 .ambassador, .M. Bournonvillc, while 

 it declined to declare the real state 

 of its engagement with France. 

 In short, every thing announced 

 that the court of Madrid was 

 merely temporising till the arrival 

 of its treasure. As the detention 

 of the frigates made no part what- 

 ever of this case, he should not 

 have touched upon it at all, if it had 

 not been already adverted to on 

 other occasions. It made no ground 

 of thi-i war, and was not even known 

 at Madrid, till after the departure 

 of the British minister. He averred 

 it to be justifiable by the law of na- 

 tions, by analogy, and by obvious 

 expediency. With these indispu- 

 table grounds of justification on our 



side^ 



