GEORGE II. 1727-1760
PETITIONS AGAINST THE CONVENTION.
The house, in a committee of supply, voted twelve thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year, and the standing army was continued without reduction, though powerfully attacked by the whole strength of the opposition. The commons likewise ordered an address to his majesty, for the copies of several memorials since the treaty of Seville, touching the rights of Great Britain, or any infraction of treaties which had not been laid before them. These were accordingly submitted to the inspection of the house. By this time the convention itself was not only presented to the commons, but also published for the information of the people. Divers merchants, planters, and others trading to America, the cities of London and Bristol, the merchants of Liverpool, and owners of sundry ships which had been seized by the Spaniards, offered petitions against the convention, by which the subjects of Spain were so far from giving up their groundless and unjustifiable practice of visiting and searching British ships sailing to and from the British plantations, that they appeared to have claimed the power of doing it as a right; for they insisted that the differences which had arisen concerning it should be referred to plenipotentiaries, to be discussed by them without even agreeing to abstain from such visitation and search during the time that the discussion of this affair might last. They therefore prayed that they might have an opportunity of being heard, and allowed to represent the great importance of the British trade to and from the plantations in America; the clear and un disputable right which they had to enjoy it, without being stopped, visited, or searched by the Spaniards, on any pretence whatsoever; and the certain inevitable destruction of all the riches and strength derived to Great Britain from that trade, if a search of British ships sailing to and from their own plantations should be tolerated upon any pretext, or under any restrictions, or even if the freedom of this navigation should continue much longer in a state of uncertainty. These petitions were referred to the committee appointed to consider of the convention. Another remonstrance was likewise presented by the trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, setting forth that the king of Spain claimed that colony as part of his territories; and that by the convention, the regulation of the limits of Carolina and Florida was referred to the determination of plenipotentiaries; so that the colony of Georgia, which undoubtedly belonged to the crown of Great Britain, was left in dispute, while the settlers remained in the most precarious and dangerous situation. It was moved that the merchants should be heard by their counsel; but the proposal was strenuously opposed by the ministry, and rejected upon a division.
This famous convention, concluded at the Pardo on the fourteenth day of January, imported, that within six weeks to be reckoned from the day on which the ratifications were exchanged, two ministers plenipotentiaries should meet at Madrid, to confer, and finally regulate the respective pretentions of the two crowns, with relation to the trade and navigation in America and Europe, and to the limits of Florida and Carolina, as well as concerning other points which remained likewise to be adjusted, according to the former treaties subsisting between the two nations: that the plenipotentiaries should finish their conferences within the space of eight months: that in the meantime no progress should be made in the fortifications of Florida and Carolina: that his catholic majesty should pay to the king of Great Britain, the sum of ninety-five thousand pounds, for a balance due to the crown and subjects of Great Britain, after deduction made of the demands of the crown and subjects of Spain: that this sum should be employed for the satisfaction, discharge, and payment of the demands of the British subjects upon the crown of Spain: that this reciprocal discharge, however, should not extend or relate to the accounts and differences which subsisted and were to be settled between the crown of Spain and the assiento company, nor to any particular or private contracts that might subsist between either of the two crowns, or their ministers, with the subjects of the other; or between the subjects of each nation respectively: that his catholic majesty should cause the sum of ninety-five thousand pounds to be paid at London within four mouths, to be reckoned from the day on which the ratifications were exchanged. Such was the substance of that convention, which alarmed and provoked the merchants and traders of Great Britain, excited the indignation of all those who retained any regard for the honour of their country, and raised a general cry against the minister who stood at the helm of administration.
DEBATE ON THE CONTENTION.
The eyes of the whole kingdom were now turned upon the house of commons. The two contending parties summoned their whole force for the approaching dispute; on the day appointed for considering the convention, four hundred members had taken their seats by eight in the morning. In a committee of the whole house, certain West India merchants and planters were heard against the convention; so that this and the following day were employed in reading papers, and obtaining information. On the eighth clay of March, Mr. H. Walpole having launched out in the praise of that agreement, moved for an address of approbation to his majesty. He was seconded by Mr. Campbell of Pembrokeshire; and the debate began with extraordinary ardour. He who first distinguished himself in the lists was sir Thomas Sanderson, at that time treasurer to the prince of Wales, afterwards earl of Scarborough. All the officers and adherents of his royal highness had joined the opposition; and he himself on this occasion sat in the gallery, to hear the debate on such an important transaction. Sir Thomas Sanderson observed, that the Spaniards by the convention, instead of giving us reparation, had obliged us to give them a general release. They had not allowed the word satisfaction to be so much as once mentioned in the treaty. Even the Spanish pirate who had cut off the ear of captain Jenkins, [260] [See note 2 L at the end of this Vol.] and used the most insulting expression towards the person of the king—an expression which no British subject could decently repeat—an expression which no man that had a regard for his sovereign could ever forgive—even this fellow lived to enjoy the fruits of his rapine, and remained a living testimony of the cowardly tameness and mean submission of Great Britain; of the triumphant haughtiness and stubborn pride of Spain. Lord Gage, one of the most keen spirited and sarcastic orators in the house, stated in this manner the account of the satisfaction obtained from the court of Spain by the convention; the losses sustained by the Spanish depredations amounted to three hundred and forty thousand pounds; the commissary by a stroke of his pen reduced his demand to two hundred thousand pounds; then forty-five thousand were struck off for prompt payment; he next allotted sixty thousand pounds as the remaining part of a debt pretended to be due to Spain, for the destruction of her fleet by sir George Byng, though it appeared by the instructions on the table, that Spain had been already amply satisfied on that head; these deductions reduced the balance to ninety-five thousand pounds; but the king of Spain insisted upon the South-Sea company’s paying immediately the sum of sixty-eight thousand pounds, as a debt due to him on one head of accounts, though in other articles his catholic majesty was indebted to the company a million over and above the demand; the remainder to be paid by Spain did not exceed seven-and-twenty thousand pounds, from which she insisted upon deducting whatever she might have already given in satisfaction for any of the British ships that had been taken; and on being allowed the value of the St. Theresa, a Spanish ship which had been seized in the port of Dublin. Mr. W. Pitt, with an energy of argument and diction peculiar to himself, declaimed against the convention, as insecure, unsatisfactory, and dishonourable to Great Britain. He said the great national objection, the searching of British ships, was not admitted, indeed, in the preamble; but stood there as the reproach of the whole, as the strongest evidence of the fatal submission that followed; on the part of Spain, an usurpation, an inhuman tyranny claimed and exercised over the American seas: on the part of England, an undoubted right by treaties, and from God and nature, declared and asserted in the resolutions of parliament, were now referred to the discussion of plenipotentiaries, upon one and the same equal footing. This undoubted right was to be discussed and regulated; and if to regulate be to prescribe rules, as in all construction it is, that right was, by the express words of the convention, to be given up and sacrificed; for it must cease to be any thing from the moment it is submitted to limitation. Mr. Lyttelton, with equal force and fluency, answered the speech of Mr. H. Walpole. “After he had used many arguments to persuade us to peace,” said he, “to any peace, good or bad, by pointing out the dangers of a war, dangers I by no means allow to be such as he represents them, he crowned all those terrors with the name of the pretender. It would be the cause of the pretender. The pretender would come. Is the honourable gentleman sensible what this language imports? The people of England complain of the greatest wrongs and indignities; they complain of the interruption, the destruction of their trade; they think the peace has left them in a worse condition than before; and in answer to all these complaints, what are they told? Why, that their continuing to suffer all this, is the price they must pay to keep the king and his family on the throne of these realms. If this were true, it ought not to be owned; but it is far from truth; the very reverse is true. Nothing can weaken the family; nothing shake the establishment, but such measures as these, and such language as this.” He affirmed, that if the ministers had proceeded conformably to the intentions of parliament, they would either have acted with vigour, or have obtained a real security in an express acknowledgment of our right not to be searched as a preliminary, sine qua non, to our treating at all. Instead of this, they had referred it to plenipotentiaries. “Would you, sir,” said he, “submit to a reference, whether you may travel unmolested from your house in town to your house in the country? Your right is clear and undeniable, why would you have it discussed? but much less would you refer it, if two of your judges belonged to a gang which has often stopped and robbed you in your way thither before.” The ministers, in vindication of the convention, asserted, that the satisfaction granted by Spain was adequate to the injury received; that it was only the preliminary of a treaty which would remove all causes of complaint; that war was always expensive and detrimental to a trading nation, as well as uncertain in its events; that France and Spain would certainly join their forces in case of a rupture with Great Britain; that there was not one power in Europe upon which the English could depend for effectual assistance; and that war would favour the cause and designs of a popish pretender. The house, upon a division, agreed to the address; but when a motion was made for its being recommitted, the two parties renewed the engagement with redoubled eagerness and impetuosity. Sir William Wyndham and Mr. Pulteney poured all the thunder of their eloquence against the insolence of Spain, and the concessions of the British ministry. Sir Robert Walpole exerted all his fortitude and dexterity in defence of himself and his measures, and the question being put, the resolutions for the address were carried by a small majority.