“His Majesty has the firmest confidence that his faithful Commons will, with that zeal and public spirit which he has so often experienced, support his Majesty in his resolution to exert all the power and the resources of the Nation, to resist and repel any hostile attempts of the court of Spain; and that, by the blessing of God on the rectitude of his intentions, and the equity of his cause, his Majesty will be able to withstand and defeat the unjust and dangerous enterprizes of his enemies, against the honour of his crown, and the Commerce, the Rights, and the common interests, of all his subjects.”
The manifesto above alluded to, which the Spanish ambassador presented to Ld. Weymouth, was as follows:
Copy of the Spanish Manifesto.
“All the world has been witness to the noble impartiality of the King in the midst of the disputes of the court of London with its American Colonies and with France. Besides which his Majesty, having learned that his powerful mediation was desired, generously made an offer of it, which was accepted by the Belligerent Powers, and for this motive only a ship of war was sent on the part of his Britannic Majesty to one of the ports of Spain. The King has taken the most energetic steps, and such as ought to have produced the most happy effect, to bring those powers to an accommodation equally honourable to both parties; proposing for this end wise expedients for smoothing difficulties, and preventing the calamities of war. But although his Majesty’s propositions, and particularly those of his ultimatum, have been conformable to those which at other times the court of London itself had appeared to judge proper for an accommodation, and which were also quite as moderate, they have been rejected in a manner that fully proves the little desire which the British cabinet has to restore peace to Europe, and to preserve the King’s Friendship. In effect, the conduct of that cabinet, with regard to his Majesty, during the whole course of the negociation, has had for its object, to prolong it for more than eight months, either by vain pretences, or by answers which could not be more inconclusive; whilst, in this interval, the insults on the Spanish flag, and the violation of the King’s Territories, were carried on to an incredible excess; prizes have been made, ships have been searched and plundered, and a great number of them have been fired upon, which have been obliged to defend themselves; the registers have been opened and torn in pieces, and even the packets of the court found on board the King’s packet boats.
“The dominions of the crown in America have been threatened, and they have gone to the dreadful extremity of raising the Indian nations called the Chatcas, Cheroquies, and Chicachas, against the innocent inhabitants of Louisiana, who would have been the victims of the rage of these barbarians, if the Chatcas themselves had not repented and revealed all that the seduction of the English had planned. The sovereignty of his Majesty in the province of Darien, and on the coast of St. Blas, has been usurped; the governor of Jamaica having granted to a rebel Indian the commission of Captain-General of those Provinces.
“In short the territory of the Bay of Honduras has been recently violated by exercising acts of hostility, and other excesses against the Spaniards, who have been imprisoned and whose houses have been invaded; besides which, the court of London has hitherto neglected to accomplish what the 16th article of the last Treaty of Paris stipulated relative to that Coast.
“Grievances so numerous, so weighty, and recent, have been at different times the object of complaints made in the King’s name, and stated in memorials which were delivered either to the British ministers at London, or transmitted to them through the channel of the English ambassador at Madrid; but although the answers which were received have been friendly, his Majesty has hitherto obtained no other satisfaction than to see the insults repeated, which lately have amounted to the number of one hundred.
“The King, proceeding with the sincerity and candour which characterize him, has formally declared to the court of London, from the commencement of its disputes with France, that the court of England should be the rule of that which Spain would hold.
“His Majesty likewise declared to that court, that at the time their differences with that of Paris might be accommodated, it would be absolutely necessary to regulate those which had arisen, or might still arise, with Spain; and with the plan of mediation which was sent to the underwritten ambassador the 28th of last September, and which was by him delivered to the British ministry in the beginning of October, a plan of which Lord Grantham was apprized, and of which he received a copy, his Majesty declared in positive terms to the Belligerent Powers, that in consideration of the insults which his subjects and dominions had suffered, and likewise of the attempts levelled against his rights, he should be under the necessity of taking his part, in case the negociation, instead of being continued with sincerity, should be broken off, or should produce no effect.