20] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



sary that all nations should have 

 an equal right of discovering the 

 illicit practices carried on by the 

 subjects of each other ; and he 

 could assure the House that it 

 would be a great error to believe 

 that the reproach of carrying on 

 the slave trade illegally belonged 

 only to other countries. In 

 numberless instances, he was 

 sorry to say, it had come to his 

 knowledge, that British subjects 

 were indirectly and largely en- 

 gaged in the traffic. 



In return for the advantages 

 and concessions at lensrth ob- 

 tamed, the House must of course 

 have expected that some claim of 

 compensation would be advanced 

 by Spain. It would appear that 

 the compensation which by one 

 of these treaties Spain was to 

 receive, amounted to 400,000/. 

 So far was this from being the 

 only motive on her part for ac- 

 ceding to the treaty, that the 

 Spanish merchants at the Havan- 

 nah had offered five times the 

 amount for the privilege of still 

 continuing it. On one occasion, 

 which the House must well re- 

 member, when his majesty's 

 ministers were pressed to disclose 

 the state and course of the pend- 

 ing negotiations with Spain, he 

 had stated that an off"er had been 

 made on the part of the British 

 to the Spanish government, of 

 the sum of 850,000i?., together 

 with a loan of 10,000,000/. of 

 dollars, in consideration of an im- 

 mediate abolition ; and that this 

 offer had been refused. Not a 

 voice was then raised in parlia- 

 ment to disapprove of this o£Fer 

 as excessive or impolitic. It 

 was undoubtedly true that his 

 majesty's ministers felt not a 



little embarrassed in their recent 

 negotiations . with the Spanish 

 government by the magnitude of 

 the offer which the British govern- 

 ment had formerly made to 

 Spain ; but these ministers had 

 been obliged to represent to the 

 court of Spain, that since the 

 offer above mentioned, England 

 had fought in the cause of the 

 world, and that having achieved 

 its safety, it had been rendered 

 unable, by its efforts, to expend 

 the sum originally proposed, and 

 therefore that Spain must confine 

 her claims within narrower limits. 

 In the course of the protracted 

 negotiation that ensued, the re- 

 duction had been made which the 

 treaty exhibited ; and if the whole 

 of the discussion was before the 

 House, 5 it would appear that 

 ministers had obtained the best 

 terms they could. 



The noble lord concluded with 

 moving, " That provision be 

 made for carrying into execution 

 the treaty between his Britanic 

 Majesty and his Catholic Majesty, 

 signed at Madrid the 23rd day of 

 September 1817." And if the 

 House should be of opinion that 

 his motion was such as ought to 

 be entertained, he should move 

 for a bill or bills to be brought in 

 pursuant to that motion ; and 

 on the House going into the 

 committee of supply, he should 

 move a resolution for a sum of 

 4'00,000/. in consequence of the 

 provisions of those bills. 



Sir Gilbert Heathcote could 

 not help regretting that a vote 

 for so considerable a sum of 

 money should be proposed by 

 the noble lord at such a period. 

 He was of opinion that the 

 400,000/. might be much more 

 advantageously 



