Several attempts were made to bring about an address against a prorogation, but many members were now gone on their summer rambles, and those who remained were chiefly impatient for repose, whence all these attempts failed. On the 3rd of July, therefore, the king prorogued parliament. In his speech the king returned his warmest thanks to both houses for their great services and their long attendance; and at the same time expressed his entire approbation of all they had done, particularly of their measures respecting Ireland. The events of the war, he said, had not given France cause for triumph, and he trusted that that ambitious power would be compelled to wish that she had not, without provocation or cause of complaint, insulted the honour and invaded the rights of his crown. As regarded the hostility of Spain, he repeated, that no blame could be attached to him. He then complimented the high national feeling of the people by observing, that he considered it as a happy omen of the success of his arms that the increase of difficulties served only to augment the courage and constancy of the nation. He concluded by remarking, that it was impossible to speak of the continuance of the rebellion in North America without concern, and that he had given such unquestionable proofs of his disposition to put an end to those troubles, which led him to hope that the designs of the enemies of Great Britain could not long prevail against the interests of the colonists.
THE CAUSES OF THE RUPTURE WITH SPAIN.
Although the opposition were correct in their conjectures as to a final war with Spain, ministers were by no means so blind as represented by them. It had, indeed, required all the family influence of the greater branch of the House of Bourbon, and all the activity and skill of French negotiators to lead Charles III. into this new and unprovoked contest. The Spanish monarch remembered how much he had suffered from his last short war with England; he was alarmed also for the tranquillity of his own colonies, if encouraged by the example of successful rebellion; and he moreover shrunk from the unkingly action of fomenting insurrection and allying himself with rebels. These were barriers which the King of France and his negotiators had to break down before they could procure the Spanish monarch’s aid in their designs. And in this they encountered a great difficulty. Charles III. assured Lord Grantham, that he knew nothing of the treaty between France and America until it was concluded; and his prime-minister, Count Florida Blanca, declared that he considered the independence of America as no less injurious to Spain than to Great Britain. Many overtures, he afterwards confessed, had been made, but his monarch had uniformly rejected the instances of France to acknowledge the independence of the United States. Subsequently, however, Charles III. was led to believe that revolution might flourish in North America without reaching the south; that the final hour of the British supremacy at sea, and consequently of the British empire was at hand; and that the united House of Bourborn would then have little else to do than to reach forth their hands and divide the spoils. The Spanish monarch then, with these visionary hopes in view, altered his line of conduct. On the first breaking out of a war with France he pretended great anxiety for maintaining his treaties with Great Britain, and expressed a compassionate interest for his brother the King of England, and his utter abhorrence of the proceedings of congress against so just and good a prince. He tendered his services as a mediator, and when it was hinted that the King of England could not submit a quarrel between him and his own subjects to another prince, he expressed his readiness to mediate in the French part of the quarrel alone, and to reconcile the differences existing between the courts of St. James’s and Versailles. To this latter proposal it was replied, that it was inconsistent with national honour to admit the interference of a third power, till the views of France were known; and then Charles expressed his readiness to open the negociation himself, so as to spare both parties the humiliation of making the first step towards a peace. He suggested, that each government should transmit its conditions to Madrid, and that he should be allowed to draw from both a plan for the conclusion of a treaty. To this the British ministers assented, and the conditions they sent were comprised in this one article—that, assuming the right of England to treat with her own colonies independently of foreign intervention, as an unquestionable principle, if France would cease her interference, and withdraw her troops from America, they would readily concur in establishing the harmony which had subsisted for fifteen years between the two crowns. On the other hand, the French ministers required that England should withdraw her forces from America; that she should acknowledge the independence of the United States; and that the French court should be granted the power of bringing forward additional demands for amending and explaining treaties. Such demands as these could not be conceded, and then the King of Spain offered these three different proposals of his own, as proper to produce a pacification—namely, that there should either be a truce between England and the colonies for twenty-five years, during which a peace might be negociated, and the separate articles in dispute with France amicably adjusted; or that there should be a truce with France, including the colonies; or that there should be an indefinite truce both with the colonies and with France, to determine only after a year’s notice, during which plenipotentiaries of England, France, and America might form a congress at Madrid, with Spain as a fourth party. This latter convention was to be signed by the American agents at Paris, subject to the approval of congress, which France was to pledge herself should be obtained, and in the meantime the colonies were to enjoy freedom of trade and independence, and the British forces were to be either withdrawn from America, or greatly reduced. The British ministers replied, that any such plan seemed to proceed on every principle which had been disclaimed, and to contain every term which had been rejected; and they declared, that if compelled to grant such extreme conditions, it would be more consistent with the dignity of the British nation to grant them directly to America, without the intervention of any foreign power. Before this final reply reached Madrid, however, the Spanish monarch threw off the mask, and ordered his ambassador to quit London, leaving the manifesto behind him as a justification of war. This manifesto contained nearly one hundred grievances; and not the least of these was, that Great Britain had insulted Spain by rejecting her mediation—a mediation which was evidently commenced with the one design of inducing a rupture between the two nations.
SPANISH ATTEMPT UPON GIBRALTAR.
Before the rupture took place between England and Spain, the Spanish ambassador had delicately hinted to our ministers, that, if they would restore the rock of Gibraltar to his monarch, he would consent to remain neutral. This price, however, was deemed too high by our ministers for what must have been, after all, a doubtful neutrality; and hence, after war was declared, the first thoughts of the Spaniards were directed to the siege of that wonderful rock. Before hostilities commenced, indeed, Florida Banca, in order to facilitate this grand object, had entered into a regular treaty with the Emperor of Morocco; he calculating that, by that act, the Moors would be prevented from supplying the garrison of Gibraltar with provisions, as they had hitherto done, and that Ceuta, the other pillar of Hercules on the African coast, belonging to Spain, would be left unmolested by them during the siege. Having done this, a large army was collected at St. Roque, Algeziras, and the Campo near Gibraltar, and immediately after the declaration of war, this force began its laborious operations for the reduction of Gibraltar. But many events demand notice before the results of these operations are recorded, for not a gleam of success attended their operations during this year.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH FLEETS IN THE CHANNEL, ETC.
One of the earliest measures after war was declared by Spain, was the junction of the fleets of the house of Bourbon. On a sudden d’Orvilliers sailed out of Brest, with thirty French sail of the line, and being joined by thirty-eight Spanish ships of the line, he made his way for the English coasts. At this time our fleet, which did not exceed thirty-eight sail of the line, was under the command of Admiral Hardy; and while he was cruizing in the soundings, the French and Spaniards appeared off Plymouth. One ship of sixty-four guns and a number of coasting-vessels were captured by them; but after parading two or three days before Plymouth, they were driven out of the Channel by a strong east wind. The same wind which drove the French and Spaniards out of the Channel had prevented Hardy from entering it; but at length the wind shifted to the westward, and he, in sight of the enemy, then gained its entrance, and England was safe. For, although d’Orvilliers, conscious of his superior strength, wished to engage Hardy out of the Channel, he would not hazard a battle in the narrow sea, where the advantage of numbers would have been lost for want of sea-room, and where the navigation would have been dangerous. Hardy, therefore, having outmanoeuvred the French admiral, proudly anchored at Spithead; and soon after the coast was covered with troops, volunteers, and militia, while fresh ships were fitted out, and cruizers at sea were recalled to the channel. Such a formidable front was shown, that the French and Spaniards were compelled to retire. They sailed for Brest where they lay for several months inactive and useless, and where thousands of them died from a terrible sickness which had broken out among them while laying off the English coast. Added to this misfortune, the Spaniards, who had sent their ships to sea in the hope of achieving high and mighty enterprises, soon found that this naval war with England was to follow the general rule, and to cost them ships and wealth, which they could not well spare. In the course of this year the British captured a large Spanish frigate off the Western Islands, and another off Cape Finisterre; a Spanish register-ship, carrying a considerable treasure from Lima to Cadiz; a rich Manilla ship, said to be the richest taken since the galleon captured by Lord Anson; another plate-ship with 200,000 dollars in specie and a quantity of bullion, &c.; and finally, a great variety of small Spanish craft. At the close of the year, therefore, the Spanish monarch had reason to deplore his rashness in entering into this war.