GENERAL HISTORY. 



[23 



■without due notice. Formerly 

 six moriths notice had been given 

 of any prohibitions ; now, these 

 were suddenly made, so that it 

 was impossible to give notice to 

 the merchant in London so as to 

 prevent shipments and very serious 

 losses. That orders upon matters 

 of commercial regulation should 

 be explicit and clear was essen- 

 tial to the very existence of com- 

 merce. Let taxation be carried 

 to any extent, but let timely 

 notice be given of such taxation ! 

 He hoped the noble lord would 

 feel it his duty to effect, if possi- 

 ble, a treaty to remove the ex- 

 cessive impositions on our trade, 

 or at least to ensure due notice 

 to our merchants. He particu- 

 larly wished to know what remon- 

 strances had been made by our 

 government, and what answer 

 had been returned. 



Lord Castlereagh, in reply to 

 the question of the hon. gentle- 

 man, said that he lamented as 

 much as any one, that the com- 

 mercial principles which regu- 

 lated the conduct of the Spanish 

 government were of a nature 

 which had now been quite ex- 

 ploded in the politics of this 

 country, and which he hoped 

 would not long maintain their 

 ground in any European cabinet. 

 At the same time we ought to 

 show some indulgence towards 

 that government even on this 

 score, considering that we our- 

 selves, not long since, had acted 

 upon the very same mistaken 

 principles in many of our com- 

 mercial regulations. For the 

 purpose of effecting a general im- 

 provement in our relations with 

 iSpain, two proposals had been 



made by tlie British cabinet ; but 



he was sorry to say that nothing 

 decisive had been done with res- 

 pect to them, nor could he state 

 that any measures were in pro- 

 gress relative to this point. With 

 respect to the particular branches 

 of trade mentioned by the hon. 

 gentleman, no man could regret 

 more than he did, that Spain had 

 placed such restrictions on the 

 cotton trade ; but this restriction 

 was not a recent one. In the 

 treaty of 1792 the admission of 

 cottons to the Spanish market was 

 entirely prohibited ; and if since 

 that time it had been at all per- 

 mitted, it was only by an act of 

 special indulgence, suspending 

 the operation of that treaty. After 

 all, Spain was not the only coun- 

 try that acted on the sj^stem of 

 commercial restriction and prohi- 

 bition : we ourselves were a good 

 deal embarrassed by the restric- 

 tions of our own regulations in that 

 matter. With respect to the 

 system of the Spanish government, 

 it had produced such effects in 

 so many cases, that the strongest 

 remonstrances had been found 

 necessarjr. These in many cases 

 had been effectual ; in other in- 

 stances the evil had been dimi- 

 nished, though not entirely reme- 

 died ; and in several instances 

 they had been hitherto quite un- 

 successful. It was to be hoped, 

 however, that as those mistaken 

 notions of commercial regulations 

 were gradually abandoned by 

 other nations, the time was near 

 at hand when they would cease 

 to be prevalent in Spain. 



Some other gentlemen joined 

 in the debate, but at length the 

 resolution was agreed to. 



CHAPTER 



