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of Madrid ; general Wall declaring with uncommon 
warmth, that we were intoxicated with our fuccefles, 
and that it was evident, by our refufal of the due de 
Choifeul’s propofals, that we aimed fird to ruin the French 
power, in order more eafily afterwards to crufli Spain, 
and, by feizing the Spanifli dominions in America, to fa- 
tisfy to the utmofl our ambition and unbounded third of 
conqued. He himfelf, he faid with padionate emphafis, 
would be the man to advife the king of Spain, fince his 
dominions were to be overwhelmed, at lead to have them 
feized with arms in his fubjefits’ hands, and not to con¬ 
tinue the padive vidtim he had hitherto appeared to be 
in the eyes of the world. It was time,- he affirmed, for 
Spain to open her eyes, and not to fuffer an ally, a neigh¬ 
bour, and a friend, to receive the rigid laws impofed by 
an infulting viftor. For this purpofe he acknowledged, 
in reply to the requifitions of the Englifh ambadador re- 
fpe£ting the purport of the late treaty, that his Catholic 
majedy had judged it expedient to renew his “family 
compacts” with the mod Chriftian king. 
This fudden alteration of language and of conduct the 
ambadador aferibed to the intelligence jud received by 
the court of Madrid, of the propofition made by Mr. Pitt, 
and recently difeuffed in the Britidi cabinet, of an imme¬ 
diate declaration of war again /1 Spain ; a meafure totally 
unexpefted, and by which Spain, who conceived herfelf 
to be the injured party, was filled with indignation and 
adonifhment. But the offence now given'vvas not thought 
entitled to any political indulgence; and lord Bridol, in 
the fubfequent difpatch of lord Egremont, was exprefsly 
commanded, in the name of his Britannic majedy, to de¬ 
mand of the Spanilh minider, an immediate, clear, and 
categorical, anfwer to the quedion before dated ; and to 
accompany this demand with an affurunce, that any pro- 
cradination, ambiguity, or evafion, will be confidered as 
ample and fufficient ground for authorizing his majedy to 
take fuch deps as his royal wifdom lb all diftate for the 
honour of his crown, and the fecurity of his people. At 
the fame time the ambadador is, with ludicrous incon- 
fiftency, charged not to ufe any harlhnefs of language 
which can have the lead tendency to indifpofe or irritate 
the Spanilh court, or the minider, M. Wall ; as if the 
language pre/cribed to the ambalfador could podibly fail 
to produce that effect on the Cadilian pride: but, in cafe 
the fatisfafition required was delayed or refufed, his ex¬ 
cellency the ambadador was ordered forthwith to quit 
Madrid, without taking leave, and repair with all con¬ 
venient fpeed to Li/bon. About the fame time that the 
above difpatch was tranfmitted by lord Egremont to the 
earl of Bridol, a letter was written to his lordflnp by the 
ambadador, in which he dates, that general Wall hud 
recovered his ufual temper; and that after an amicable 
difeudion of the points in difpute, enforced by long and 
difpadionate rea/onings, they had parted with reciprocal 
protedations of their earned defire to continue in peace ; 
and a copy of the king’s fpeech to the new parliament 
arriving about this period, the Spanilh minider highly 
applauded the candour and moderation difplayed through- 
eut the-whole; a (Turing at the fame time the Englifli'am- 
baffador, that he expended (hortly to receive the Catholic 
Icing’s commands to acquaint him with the refolutions of 
Spain relative to his applications. But thefe flattering- 
appearances entirely vaniflied, when, in compliance with 
the exprefs inflruftions of the Englilh court, the ambaf- 
fador in peremptory terms demanded the categorical an¬ 
fwer required in the lad latter of the earl of Egremont, 
declaring, in conformity to the orders he had received, 
that a refufal, and even a delay of fatisfailion, would be 
deemed an aggreffion on the part of the court of Madrid, 
and regarded in no other light than as an abfolute decla¬ 
ration of war. “ I cannot (fays the earl of Bridol, in 
his official difpatch) deferibe the furprife M. Wall ex- 
preffeu at hearing this—he only brought out thefe words : 
What is to follow ? You have then orders to withdraw 
from hence/” Upon the ambaffador’s acknowledgment 
LAND. 731 
that fuch were his indru&ions, general Wall defired him 
for greater precifion to put in writing what he was ordered 
to demand ; and, repairing to the palace of the Buen Re¬ 
tiro, he returned, after a fliort interval, an anfwer from 
his Catholic majedy, in which, the ambadador is told, 
“ that the fpirit of haughtinefs and difeord which dic¬ 
tated this inconfiderate hep, and which for the misfortune 
of mankind dill reigns fo much in the Britidi government, 
is what made in the fame indant the declaration of war 
and attacked the king’s dignity : your excellency may 
think of retiring when and in the manner convenient to 
you ; which is the only anfwer his majedy has directed 
rne to give.” Orders were fent from Madrid to the count 
de Fuentes, indantly to leave the court and kingdom of 
England, delivering fird a memorial to the miniders of 
the king of England, in which the war that the Spanifh 
and Englidi nations were about to plunge into, is attri¬ 
buted to the pride and immeafurable ambition of him 
who lately held the reins of government in Great Britain. 
“ If (faid the memorial) his Catholic majedy excufed 
himfelf from making the explanations required, it was to 
manifed his jud refentment of the infulting manner in 
which the affairs of Spain have been treated during Mr. 
Pitt’s adminidration ; who, when the jndice of his Ca¬ 
tholic majedy’s claims had been incontrovertibly proved, 
gave as his final anfwer, That he would not relax in any thing 
till the Tower of London was taken fword in hand. If the re. 
fpedt due to royal majedy had been regarded, explana¬ 
tions it was affirmed might have been had without diffi¬ 
culty. The miniders of Spain might have faid frankly 
to thofe of England, what the count de Fuentes, by the 
king’s exprefs orders, declares publicly, That the faid 
treaty is only a convention between the family of Bour¬ 
bon,. wherein.is nothing which has the lead relation to the 
prefent war ; that there is in it an article for the mutual 
guarantee of the dominions of the two fovereigns, but it 
is fpecified therein that this guarantee is not to be under, 
dood but of the dominions which (hall remain to France 
after the prefent war (hall be ended; that although his 
Catholic majedy might have had reafon to think himfelf 
offended, by the irregular manner in which the memorial 
for terminating the differences between Spain and Eng¬ 
land, at the fame time with the war betwixt this lad and 
France, was returned to M. Buffy, the king of Spain dif- 
fetnbled, and from his love of peace caufed a memorial 
to be delivered to lord Bridol, wherein it is evidently 
demonflrated, that the hep of France which put the mi¬ 
nider Pitt into fo bad humour, did not at all offend either 
the laws of neutrality or the fincerity of the two fove. 
reigns; that as a freffi proof of his pacific fpirit, the king 
of Spain wrote to the king of France his coufin, that if 
the union of intered in any manner retarded the peace 
with England, he confented to feparate himfelf-from it, 
not to put any obdacle to fo great a happinefs : but it 
was foon feen this was only a pretence on the part of the 
Englifit minider; for that of France continuing his nego- 
ciatio.ns without making any mention of Spain, , and pro- 
pofmg conditions very advantageous and honourable for 
England, the minider Pitt, to the great adoniffiment of 
the univerfe, rejected them with difdain, and (hewed at 
the fame time his ill-will againd Spain, to the fcandal of 
the fame Britidi council; and unfortunately he has fuc- 
ceeded but too far in his pernicious defign.” This me. 
men ial ferved to demondrate the fuperior fagacity of lord 
■Bridol, who declared, in the courfe of this negociation, his 
firm belief that the treaty in queflTon contained no article 
injurious to the intereds of England, although the pre- 
poderous pride of the Spanifli court prevented any pofi- 
tive or fatisfafliory affurance being given on this head ; 
and the two nations, from an obdinate adherence to a 
falfe and fooliIh punitilio of honour, found themfelves at 
length involved in a war, which they equally and anxi- 
oufly wiflied to avoid. 
The preparations made for condudting the war againd 
the united force of the. houfe of Bourbon with vigour 
s and 
