AFFAIRS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
In Spain, the interest of Great Britain was so warmly espoused, and so powerfully supported by Mr. Wall, who had been resident in England, that the French party, though countenanced by the queen-mother, and sustained with all the influence of the marquis de la Ensenada, the prime minister, was totally defeated. The king being convinced that it would be for the interest of his subjects to live on good terms with England, and well apprized of Ensenada’s intrigues, ordered that minister to be arrested and confined, and bestowed upon Mr. Wall the best part of his employments. Nevertheless, the Spaniards in the West Indies continued to oppress the subjects of Great Britain, employed in cutting logwood in the bay of Honduras; and representations on this head being made to the court of Madrid, the dispute was amicably adjusted between Mr. Wall and sir Benjamin Keene, the British ambassador. While the interest of Britain thus triumphed in Spain, it seemed to lose ground at the court of Lisbon. His Portuguese majesty had formed vast projects of an active commerce, and even established an East India company; in the meantime he could not help manifesting his chagrin at the great quantities of gold which were yearly exported from his dominions, as the balance due from his subjects on English commodities. In his endeavours to check this traffic, which he deemed so detrimental to his subjects, he inflicted hardships on the British merchants settled at Lisbon: some were imprisoned on frivolous pretences; others deprived of their property, and obliged to quit the kingdom. He insisted upon laying an imposition of two per cent, on all the Portuguese gold that should be exported; but the profits of the trade would not bear such an exaction. Meanwhile, there being a scarcity of corn in Portugal, the kingdom was supplied from England; and the people having nothing but gold to purchase this necessary supply, the king saw the necessity of conniving at the exportation of his coin, and the trade reverted into its former channel.