206 DECLARATION Or THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. [1790. 



amount should have been ascertained, and would give satisfaction 

 to his Britannic majesty for the injury of which he had complained ; 

 and this Declaration, together with the performance of the engage- 

 ments made in it, was admitted by the ambassador in his Counter 

 Declaration,* as full and entire satisfaction for those injuries : it be- 

 ing, however, at the same time admitted and expressed on both 

 sides, that the Spanish " Declaration was not to preclude or preju- 

 dice the ulterior discussion of any right which his Catholic majesty 

 might claim to form an exclusive establishment at Nootka Sound." 

 The affair had thus far proceeded, nearly in the same course as 

 that respecting the Falkland Islands, twenty years previous ; and 

 the govefnment of Madrid probably supposed that it would have 

 been terminated in the same manner. But Mr. Pitt, then in the 

 fulness of his power in England, had other objects in view. The 

 revolution in France was then advancing with a rapidity terrible to 

 all who desired to maintain the existing state of things in Europe ; 

 and anti-monarchical doctrines and feelings were pervading every 

 part of that continent, and even of the British Islands. Pitt clearly 

 foresaw the storm which afterwards came on, and determined 

 to prepare for it, by arming at home, and by leading or forcing 

 other nations to accede to his plans. He accordingly formed alli- 

 ances with Holland and Sweden : for Spain he had inherited all 

 his father's hatred and contempt; and, considering her long and 

 close connection with France, he resolved to bend and bind her to 

 his views by the strong hand. He had already, in an inconceivably 

 short space of time, assembled a mighty armament, which he in- 

 tended, in the event of a war, to direct against the Spanish posses- 

 sions in America, for the purpose of wresting them from their actual 

 rulers, either by conquest or by internal revolution ; f and, having 

 assumed this position, he did not hesitate to require from Spain the 

 surrender of many of the exclusive pretensions with regard to nav- 

 igation, commerce, and territorial sovereignty, upon which her do- 

 minion in the western continent was supposed, with reason, to 



* The Declaration and Counter Declaration may be found among the documents 

 connected with the discussion, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D, No. 7. 



t Mr. Pitt's scheme for detaching from Spain her transatlantic dominions is be- 

 lieved, with reason, to have been suggested to him by Francisco Miranda, a native 

 of Caraccas, through whose agency a number of exiles and fugitives from those 

 countries, including many of the expelled Jesuits, were engaged in the plan, and cor- 

 respondences were commenced with the principal persons inclined to a separation 

 from Spain in all parts of her American territories. On this subject, many curious 

 particulars may be found in the Edinburgh Review for January, 1809. The subse- 

 quent history, and the melancholy fate, of Miranda are well known. 



