STATE PAPERS. 



609 



of unconditional offence. — By the 

 articles of that treaty, Spain cove- 

 nanted to furnish a stated contin- 

 gent of naval and military force for 

 the prosecution of any war in which 

 the French republic might think 

 proper to- engage. She specifically 

 surrendered any right or pretension 

 to enquire into the nature, origin, 

 or justice of that war. She stipu- 

 lated, in the first instance, a contin- 

 gent of troops and ships, which, of 

 itself, comprised no moderate pro- 

 portion of the means at her dispo- 

 sal ; but in the event of this contin- 

 gent being at any time found insuf- 

 ficient for the purposes of France, 

 she further bound herself to put 

 into a state of activity the utmost 

 force, both by sea and land, that it 

 should be in her power to coHect. 

 She covenanted that this force 

 should be at the disposal of France, 

 to be employed conjointly or sepa- 

 rately for the annoyance of the 

 common enemy ; thus submitting 

 her entire power and resources to 

 be used as the instruments of French 

 ambition and aggression, and to be 

 applied in whatever proportion 

 France might think proper, for the 

 avowed purpose of endeavouring to 

 subvert the government, and de- 

 stroy the national existence of Groat 

 Britain, — The character of such a 

 treaty gave Great Britain an incon- 

 tcstiblc right to declare to Spain, 

 that nnlcss she decidedly renounced 

 the treaty, or gave assurances that 

 she would not perform the obliga- 

 tions of it, she would not be consi, 



dered as a neutral power. This 



right, however, for prudential rea- 

 sons, and from motives of forbear- 

 ance and tenderness towards Spain, 

 was not exercised in its full extent : 

 and, in consequence of assurances 

 ef a 'pacific disposition on the part 

 Vol, XL VII. 



of the Spanish government, his ma- 

 jesty did not, in the first instance, 

 insist on a distinct and formal re- 

 nunciation of the treaty. It does 

 not appear that any express demand 

 of succour had been made by 

 France before the month of July, 

 one thousand eight hundred and 

 three ; and on the first notification 

 of the war, his majesty's mii>ister at 

 Madrid was led to believe, in con- 

 sequence of communications whlcb 

 passed between him and the Spanish 

 government, that his catholic ma- 

 jesty did not consider himself as ne- 

 cessarily bound by the mere fact of 

 the existence of a war between 

 Great Britain and France, without 

 subsequent explanation and discus- 

 sion, to fulfil the stipulations of tho 

 treaty of St. ildephonso, though tha 

 articl'^'S of that treaty would cer- 

 tainly give rise to a very diflTereut 

 interpretation. In the month of 

 October a convention was signed, 

 by which Spain agreed to pay to 

 France a certain sum monthly in 

 lieu of naval and military succours, 

 which they had stipulated by the 

 treaty to provide, but of the amount 

 of this sum, or of the nature of anj 

 other stipulations which that con- 

 vention might contain, no official 

 information whatever was aivcn.-^ 

 It was immediately stated by hiu 

 majesty's minister at Madrid, to tho 

 Spanish government, that a subsidy 

 as large as that which they wer« 

 supposed to have engaged to pay to 

 France, far exceeded the bounds of 

 forbearance: that it could onlj' 

 meet with a temporary connivance, 

 as, if it was continued, it might 

 prov6, in fact, a greater injury than 

 ^any other hostility. In reply to 

 these remonstrances, it was repre- 

 sentcd as an expedient to gain time, 

 and assurances were given which 

 R r wer<> 



