J79*« Parliamentary Proceedings. 187 



to this authority, he wifhed to enter into the difcunion of the 

 Convention, on the grounds before the Houfe. lie infilled, that 

 by refufing the papers that had been called for, the Houfe had 

 been precluded from knowing the circiimftances on which the 

 merit or demerit of the negociation efTentially depended, and 

 of courfe it rendered cenfure and approbation iqiially improper. 



If the armament had been carried on for other purpofes than 

 that of fettling the difpute with Spain, as there were fome rea- 

 fon ^o fufpe(ft, from hints that had occurred during the debate, 

 and otherwife, he fhould not then enter on the policy of the 

 meafure ; but if minifters had kept up an armament for one 

 purpofe, they ought not to call upon the Houfe to pay for it 

 under colour of another. It was, he faid, a fundamental prin- 

 ciple of our government, and a principle never to be departed 

 from, that the Houfe of Commons was, on no pretext, to vote 

 money for one purpofe, when the expence had been incurred 

 for another. 



He faid, that by the Convention, the national honour had 

 been compromifed and yielded in a very m.aterial point. Ho- 

 nour to nations was, perhaps, the only juftifiable or rational 

 ground of conteft. Wars for the fake of conqueit, of acquiring 

 dominion, or extending trade, were equally unjuft and impolitic; 

 and on this ground he wiflied to examine the Convention. Tfte 

 reparation was much lefs than had been ob'ained in the conteft 

 about Falklands Iflands. In that cafe there was to be a com- 

 plete reftoration ; in this, only a declaration of a difpofition to 

 reftore. He then entered into the comparifon more at large, 

 and pafling to the arguments that had been adduced in the de- 

 bate, he faid, " it had been amplified as a great acceffion of na- 

 tional honour, that we had broke through an unreafonable 

 claim, not only for ourfelve?, but for all other nations, and that 

 it became the dignity of a great nation to deftroy fuch claims 

 wherever they were found. But would any man ferioufly de- 

 fend this romantic dodrinc ?" He admitted that the time was 

 proper for fettling the difpute refpedting the undefined claims of 

 Spain ; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he prefented 

 his Majefty's mefTage to the Houfe, faid, that full and complete 

 fatisfa(ft:on muft be obtained for the infult offered to the national 

 honour, previous to any difcuffion of the contefted right, and 

 that no fatisfaction would be confidercd as complete, which 

 did not take a -•ray the ground of future quarrel. 



This termination the Houfe adopted, and he rejoiced in the 

 profpedt of avoiding the trouble and expence of a tedious dif- 

 ctiflion of a queftion of right. In the condu(5t of the bufinefs 

 however, a contrary mode had been adopted. We had con- 

 trived to bring the qneftion of right into difcuffion almoft in 'he 

 very firft inftance, and after fatisfaftion for the infult was of- 

 f«a^ed and accepted, the Convention, which thus became a dif- 



