On August 30 Montmorin informed the Assembly that the King had sanctioned the decrees and would proceed at once to carry them out. The minister for marine, he said, had already received orders for the armament. Only 16 vessels would be fitted out at once, which, added to the 14 already armed, would make 30. Preparations would be made to complete the armament to 45 if that should become necessary.[387] On September 1 Montmorin replied to Fernan Nuñez’s letter of June 16. He told of the action of the Assembly and inclosed a copy of the decrees. The King, he said, was taking steps to carry them out. The reason that only 30 ships instead of 45 would be armed immediately was to avoid the appearance of hostility to England. The French King hoped for a peaceful settlement and reciprocal disarmament.[388]
To one who did not scrutinize the decrees closely the action of the Assembly seemed to be all that Spain could desire. If the support had been tardy, yet it was enthusiastic. It seems that at heart most of the Assembly really desired to support Spain and thought that they were doing all that could be expected; but their irrepressible tendency to theorize blinded them to the practical. Apparently they did not realize that their proposal to modify the treaty at such a critical time nullified it as far as any immediate assistance under it was concerned. It seems possible that if Mirabeau had stood firmly for ratifying the treaty as it was he might still have carried the Assembly with him.[389]
The French Government was anxious regarding the effect that the action of the Assembly might have on England. The French view of England’s conduct was well expressed in a letter from Montmorin to Luzerne, the ambassador from France to the English Court. After remarking that the British Court would probably be astonished at the decrees, he explained that the step was necessary to sustain the honor of France. It had not been taken precipitately, he said, but had been delayed as long as possible, even provoking complaints from Spain. When it was learned that Spain had given satisfaction to England, and still the latter refused to disarm, the French Government was compelled to suppose that the British Cabinet had some ulterior purpose and was not certain that it did not concern France. Either England did not wish to terminate the Nootka affair justly or she had other objects, for which this was to furnish a stepping-stone. If it was a question of Spain, France was interested in saving her ally; if the French themselves were concerned, argument was unnecessary. Luzerne was to use these arguments with Leeds and Pitt. He was also to use confidentially the fact that the Assembly had decreed a larger armament than the Government had asked. This, Montmorin remarked, ought to make an impression. Luzerne might again suggest French intervention, but with much circumspection, since it had been refused before.[390] On the day after writing the above private instructions for the ambassador, Montmorin asked him to assure the English King that the armaments were purely precautionary and had no object except those designated by the Assembly. The French King hoped for a peaceable settlement. He had been pleased with the declaration and counter-declaration, but would have been more pleased if a proportionate disarmament had followed, or at least an agreement not to increase the armaments.[391]
Gower, the British ambassador at Paris, had promptly expressed to Montmorin his surprise at the action of the Assembly. He reported on August 27 to his Government that Montmorin was surprised also, and had told him that orders would be given to commission more ships, “but that it would be done (this he said in the utmost confidence) avec le plus grande lenteur.”[392] A dispatch of the next day hinted that Spanish money might have influenced the Assembly.[393] On September 1 instructions were sent from London telling Gower to renew the English assurances of friendliness for France, but to observe that it would be impossible for the harmony to continue if France should support Spain. He was to represent that any aid or encouragement to Spain would be a cause of umbrage to England, since it would make a just settlement more difficult.[394] On September 4 Gower presented a memorial demanding an explanation of the armament.[395] Montmorin’s letter to Luzerne of August 28, referred to above, was presented to the English Court on September 7.[396] On September 10, in reply to Gower’s of the 4th, Montmorin referred the English Court to a letter written September 9 to Luzerne, which the latter would present. For some reason Luzerne delayed handing this to the British Court, and on September 21 Gower was instructed to demand a formal reply to his memorial. When this demand reached Paris, Montmorin was out of the city. Having returned, he answered, October 4, that he did not understand Luzerne’s delay. He declared that France had no wish to influence the negotiations, but in case the matter could not be amicably settled she might be compelled to support Spain. Before this reached London Gower had been instructed to demand that the French fleet make no move to join the Spanish. On October 14 Montmorin agreed that no movement should be made until England should have received a reply from Spain to the ultimatum which the British Court had sent a few days before.[397] Hugh Elliot was sent secretly as a special English agent to argue with the French Court against supporting Spain. He met members of the diplomatic committee and thought, at least, that he had converted them to the English view. W. A. Miles coöperated with Elliot in this undertaking. Only obscure and mysterious references to their mission are extant, and many curious speculations have been made concerning it.[398]
Before news reached Madrid of the action of the National Assembly negotiations had begun for a final settlement of the Nootka question.
The declaration and counter declaration signed late in July had been accepted by England as affording the satisfaction demanded. This had opened the way for a pacific discussion of the respective rights to Nootka and the neighboring coast.[399] On September 8 Fitzherbert presented to Floridablanca the first projet of a treaty. It had been formulated in London three weeks earlier and had been sent with instructions to the British ambassador. These instructions declared it to be the purpose of the British Government to avoid requiring Spain to make any mortifying renunciation of rights, but at the same time the stipulations were to be so worded that they would not imply an admission of the Spanish claims by the British Government. It was impossible for His Majesty to recognize them, either directly or indirectly. They were merely a matter of pride with Spain, it was said, and were really a source of weakness rather than of strength.[400]
When Fitzherbert submitted the projet he inclosed with it extended observations on each article. The preamble, as it had been worded by the British ambassador, declared a desire to form a convention which would settle the present differences and avoid such disputes for the future. On this he observed that the Court of London thought that would be the best means of settlement which, without formally pronouncing on the opposing pretensions, should regulate the respective positions of the two Crowns for the future. If British subjects could be assured of the free exercise of their rights in the Pacific, the English King would not be reluctant to establish all possible rules to prevent illicit commerce with Spanish possessions. The Court of London was persuaded that a Cabinet so wise as that of Spain could not seriously have advanced such vast pretensions.
The first article declared that British subjects should be replaced in possession of the ships and lands of which they had been deprived at Nootka by a Spanish officer toward the month of April, 1789.[401] The observations on this gave the English arguments against the claim of Spain to exclusive dominion over the coasts in question. The English Court could not admit the justice of an exclusive sovereignty over so vast a coast, which since its discovery had without interruption been frequented by British subjects and by those of other nations as well. Spain claimed only as far as the sixty-first degree, conceding to Russia the portion beyond. Fitzherbert insisted, with a good deal of sagacity, that the very principle of this division demonstrated the inadmissibility of the Spanish pretension. If Russia had acquired rights to the coast beyond the sixty-first degree in virtue of the establishments which her subjects had formed there, how, he asked, could other nations be denied the opportunity of making establishments in like manner on the parts of the coast situated below this degree and not already occupied? As to the Spanish claim to priority of discovery, he implied that it could be disproved, though he did not disprove it. However, he insisted that discovery alone, without being followed up by actual occupation, could not be admitted as furnishing a right to possession which could operate to the exclusion of other nations. England did not claim exclusive jurisdiction, he said. What she wished was a reciprocal assurance of free access for both nations to the new establishments formed or to be formed by the one or the other.
The second article, in keeping with the statement just made, declared that between certain limits, to be named later, the subjects of both Crowns should exercise their commerce without hindrance in the establishments of either.