i88 Parliamentary Proceedings. Od. 12. 

 I 



tincft objedt, had cofl as much as the reparation for our injured 

 honour. It was therefore fair to try it b^ the expsnce and the 

 price we had paid for it In the early" part of the flebate he 

 had heard nothing bv.t r!vKlomonrade about our scqiiifttions. 



An honourable ge'itleman who fpoke ir^.mcniatcly before 

 him (Mr Ryder) hai^ put the qucflion on its friie footirp. He 

 had. from the co'itag on df particular phrafes, talked of gaining 

 and acquiring, but r his argument had very properlv faid that 

 we had matie no acquifitions, but only got fecurity for what 

 we had b?fore. This was precift-lv what we had got ; an ad- 

 vantao^e, no doubt, in as much as it was often w fe to give up 

 part of our rights, in nrder to pofTcfs the reft in lijcurity ; but 

 an advanta;;e to ise eilimated by what it had cofl. He would 

 therefore rnqmre vhat we pofTrfTd before the Convention, and 

 wh.it it fecur.'^i to us ? We pofTtfTird and exercifed as our un- 

 doubted rigft the free nav'gation of the Pacific Ocean, without 

 any reftraint ct linitation. We pufTcffed and exercifed the 

 right of carrying on filheries in the South Seas, tquajly unlimit- 

 ed. Tiiis was no barren rigl-t, but a right of which we had 

 availed or.rfelves, as appeared by the papers on the table, which 

 ihe«'ed that the produce of it f.aJ increafed in five years from 

 twelve to ninety-feven thoufand pounds. This eftate we had 

 improved and were daily improving ; it was not to be difijraced 

 by the name of an acquilition. The admifiion of part of thefe 

 rights b'- Spain was all we had obtained, and it was of fome- 

 value. It remained to inquire what it had cod. Our right 

 before was to tttle in any unoccupied part of South or North. 

 "Wefl America, and we were now reftrided to fettle in certain 

 places only, and under certain reftridlions. This was an im- 

 portar.t conceffion on our part. Our right of fifliing extended to 

 the whole ocean, and now it too was limited, and to be carried 

 on withir. certain diftances of the Spanifh fettlement?,. Our 

 fight of making fettkments was not, . as now, a right to build 

 huts, but to plant colonies, if we thought proper. Surely thefe 

 were not acquifitions, or rather conqueft,"^,. if we might judge 

 by the triumphant language held refpedting them, l3ut great 

 and important conceflions. He then went into a particular ex» 

 amination of many affertions that had been made in the ccurfe- 

 of the debate by his opponents, endeavouring to {how that if 

 they were well foundei!, we had adted unjuftly by Spain,, and" 

 ouglit to be accounted the aggrtflbrs. ;• 



He proceeded, in like m.aniier, to analife the articles of the 

 Convention, fhov.ing that they were imfatisfacftory and contra- 

 <ii(ftory of each other. By the third article, fays he, we are au- 

 thorifed to navigate the Pacific Ocean and South Sea unmolefted, 

 for the parpofe of carryin:^on our fifhcries, and to land on un- ■ 

 IVttled coaftsfor the purpofe of trading with the natives; but af- 

 ter this pompous acknowledgment of right to navigation, tifhery, ■ 



