258 WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND. [1796. 



to declare war against her former ally, Great Britain. In the mani- 

 festo published by the court of Madrid, on the latter occasion, " the 

 frequent arrival of English vessels on the coasts of Peru and Chili, 

 to carry on contraband trade, and to reconnoitre those coasts, 

 under the pretext of the whale fishery, which privilege they claimed 

 under the Nootka convention," is alleged among the causes of the 

 rupture. The British government, in its answer, denied " that the 

 whale fishery by the English, in these parts, was, as asserted, claimed 

 in the convention of Nootka, as then for the first time established," 

 insisting that the right was, in that convention, " solemnly recognized 

 by the court of Madrid, as having always belonged to Great Britain, 

 and the full and undisturbed exercise of which was guarantied to 

 his majesty's subjects, in terms so express, and in a transaction so 

 recent, that ignorance of it cannot be pretended." That Great 

 Britain did always possess the right to fish in the Pacific and South- 

 ern Oceans, agreeably to the principles of common justice, is un- 

 questionable ; but that this right was acknowledged by Spain in 

 the Nootka convention, or in any other treaty between those powers 

 previous to 1796, is by no means exact. In the Nootka conven- 

 tion, all assertions and recognitions of rights are, on the contrary, 

 avoided ; the whole instrument being, in fact, a series of conces- 

 sions, limitations, and restrictions, resting entirely on the consent of 

 both parties, and expiring on the withdrawal of its consent by either. 

 On this declaration of war by Spain against Britain, the Nootka 

 convention, with all its stipulations, of whatsoever nature they might 

 have been, expired, agreeably to the rule universally observed and 

 enforced among civilized nations, that all treaties are ended by war 

 between the parties. From that moment, Spain might, as before 

 the convention, claim the exclusive navigation of the Pacific and 

 Southern Oceans, and the sovereignty of all their American coasts ; 

 and Great Britain might again assert the right of her subjects to sail 

 and fish in every open sea, and to settle on every unoccupied coast.* 



From the preceding view of the circumstances connected with 

 the convention of October, 1790, and the occupation of Nootka 

 Sound by the Spaniards, we are authorized to conclude, — 



That no part of " the north-west coasts of the continent of North 

 America, or of the adjacent islands," had ever been owned or occu- 

 pied by British subjects, anterior to the establishment of the Spanish 

 post at Nootka Sound, in May, 1789 : Consequently, — 



* Further considerations on this subject will be found in the fifteenth chapter of 

 this History. 



