two monarchies formed only one and the fame power. 19. 20. The king of Spain contracts for the king of the Two Sicilies, the engagements of this treaty, and promifes to caufe it to be ratified by that prince; provided that the proportion of the fuccours to be furnified by his Sicilian majefty, fhall be fettled in proportion to his power. The three monarchs engage to fupport, on all occafions, the dignity and rights of their houfe, and thofe of all the princes defcended from it. 21. 22. No other power but thofe of the augult houfe of Bourbon fhall be inferted or admitted to accede, to the prefent treaty, Their respective fubjects and dominions hall participate in the connection and advantages fettled between the fovereigns, and fhall not do or undertake any thing contrary to the good understanding fubfilting between them. 23. The Droit d'Aubaine fhall be abolished in favour of the fubjects of their Catholic and Sicilian majefties, who fhail enjoy in France the fame privileges as the natives. The French fhall likewife be treated in Spain and the Two Sicilies, as the natural born fubjects of thefe two monarchies. 24. The fubjects of the three fovereigns fhall enjoy, in their refpective dominions in Europe, the fame privileges and exemptions as the natives. 25. Notice fhall be given to the powers, with whom the three contracting monarchs have already concluded, or fhall hereafter conclude, treaties of commerce, that the treatment of the French in Spain and the Two Sicilies, of the Spaniards in France and the Two Sicilies, and of the Sicilians in France and Spain, fhall not be cited nor ferve as a precedent; it being the intention of their moft Chriftian, Catholic, and Sicilian majesties, that no other nation fhall participate in the advantages of their refpective fubjects. 26. The contracting parties fhall reciprocally difclofe to each other their alliances and negotiations, efpecially when they have reference to their common interefts; and their minifters at all the courts of Europe hall live in the greatett harmony and mutual confidence. 27. This article contains only a ftipulation concerning the ceremonial to be obferved between the miniflers of France and Spain, with regard to precedency at foreign courts. 28. This contains a promise to ratify the treaty. Such is in fubftance, the treaty in question. No feparate or fecret article is added to it. The ftipulations of it cannot prejudice any other power. The object of the reciprocal guaranty is only thofe dominions of which the contracting powers fhall be in poffeffion at the epoch of a general peace. In short, all the conditions and claufes of this treaty, in which England is neither named, nor even defigned, have not the leaft connection with the origin, the object, or the events of the prefent war. The king of Spain, to give a public teftimony of the fatisfaction he received from the conclufion of this family convention, has created the duke de Choifeul, who laboured with fo much zeal to accomplish this great work, a grandee of Spain, and a knight of the golden fleece. From From the London Gazette. Tranflation of a note delivered to the earl of Egremont, by the count de Fuentes, December 25, 1761. T HE count de Fuentes, the Catholic king's ambaffador to his Britannic majesty, has just received a courier from his court, by whom he is informed, that my lord Bristol, his Britannic majefty's ambaffador at the court of Madrid, has faid to his excellency Mr. Wall, minister of State, that he had orders to demand a pofitive and categorical answer to this queftion, viz. If Spain thinks of allying herself with France against England?' And to declare, at the fame time, that he fhould take a refufal to his demand, for an aggreffion and declaration of war, and that he should, in confequence, be obliged to retire from the court of Spain. The above minister of ftate anfwered him, that such a step could only be fuggefted by the fpirit of haughtinefs, and of difcord, which, for the misfortune of mankind, ftill reigns but too much in the British government; that it was in that very moment that the war was declared; and the king's dignity violently attacked, and that he might retire how, or when he should think proper. The count de Fuentes is, in confequence, ordered to leave the court and the dominions of England, and to declare to the British king, to the English nation, and to the whole universe, that the horrors into which the Spanish and English nations are going to plunge themfelves, must be attributed only to the pride, and to the unmeasurable ambition of him who has held the reins of the government, and who, appears ftill to hold them, although by another hand that, if his Catholic majesty excused himself from answer ing on the treaty in queftion between his Catholic majefty and his moft Chriftian majefty, which is believed to have been figned the 15th of Auguft, and wherein, it is pretended, there are conditions relative to England, he had very good reasons; firit, the king's dignity required him to manifeft his juft refentment of the little management, or, to speak more properly, of the infulting manner with which all the affairs of Spain have been treated during Mr. Pitt's adminiftration, who, finding himfelf convinced of the juftice which fupported the king in his pretenfions, his ordinary and last answer was, that he would not relax in any thing till the Tower of London was taken fword in hand. Befides, his majefty was much fhocked to hear the haughty and imperious tone with which the contents of the treaty were demanded of him: if the refpect due to royal majefty had been regarded, explanations might have been had without any difficulty: the minifters of Spain might have faid frankly to thofe of England, what the count de Fuentes, by the king's exprefs order declares publickly, viz. That the faid treaty is only a convention between the family of Bourbon, wherein there is nothing that has the least relation to the prefent war: that there is in it an article for the mutual guaranty of the dominions of the two fovereigns; but it is fpecified therein, that that guaranty is not to be understood but of the dominions which fhall remain to France after the prefent war fhall be ended: that, altho' his Catholic majefty might have had reason to think himself offended by the irregular manner in which the memorial was returned to M. Buffy, minifter of France, which he had pre fented fented for terminating the diffe. rences of Spain and England, at the fame time with the war between this laft and France; he has, however, diffembled, and, from an effect of his love of peace, caufed a memorial to be delivered to my lord Bristol, wherein it is evidently demonftrated, that the ftep of France, which put the minister Pitt into fo bad humour, did not at all offend either the laws of neutrality, or the fincerity of the two fovereigns: that further, from a fresh proof of his pacific fpirit, the king of Spain wrote to the king of France his coufin, that if the union of intereft in any manner retarded the peace with England, he confented to feparate himself from it, not to put any obftacle to fo great a happinefs but it was foon feen that this was only a pretence on the part of the English minifter, for that of France continuing his negotiation without making any mention of Spain, and propofing conditions very advantageous and honourable for England, the minifter Pitt, to the great aftonishment of the univerfe, rejected them with difdain, and fhewed at the fame time his illwill against Spain, to the fcandal of the fame British council; and unfortunately he has fucceeded but too far in his pernicious defign. : This declaration made, the count de Fuentes defires his excellency my lord Egremont, to prefent his moft humble refpects to his Britannic majesty, and to obtain for him paffports, and all other facilities, for him, his family, and all his retinue, to go out of the dominions of Great Britain without any trouble, and to go by the fhort paffage of the fea, which feparates them from the continent. Tranflation of the answer delivered to the count de Fuentes, by the earl of Egremont, Dec. 31, 1761. T HE earl of Egremont, his Britannic majelty's fecretary of ftate, having received from his excellency the count de Fuentes, ambaffador of the Catholic king at the court of London, a paper, in which, befides the notification of his recall, and the demand of the neceffary paffports to go out of the king's do minions, he has thought proper to enter into what has juft paffed between the two courts, with a view to make that of London appear as the fource of all the misfortunes which may enfue from the rupture which has happened: in order that nobody may be mifled by the declaration which his excellency has been pleafed to make to the king, to the English nation, and the whole univerfe; notwithstanding the infinuation, as void of foundation as of decency, of the spirit of haughtiness and of difcord, which, his excellency pretends, reigns in the British government, to the misfortune of mankind; and notwithstanding the irregularity and indecency of appealing to the English nation, as if it could be feparated from its king, for whom the most determined fentiments of love, of duty, and of confidence, are engraved in the hearts of all his fubjects; the faid earl of Egremont, by his majesty's order, laying afide, in this anfwer, all fpirit of declamation and of harshness, avoiding every offenfive word, which might hurt the dignity of fovereigns, without ftooping to invectives against private perfons, will confine himself to facts with the moft fcrupulous exactnefs: and it is from this representation of facts that he he appeals to all Europe, and to the whole univerfe, for the purity of the king's intentions, and for the fincerity of the wishes his majefty has not ceafed to make, as well as for the moderation he has always thewed, though in vain, for the maintenance of friendship and good understanding between the British and Spanish nations. The king having received undoubted informations, that the court of Madrid had fecretly contracted engagements with that of Verfailles, which the minifters of France laboured to reprefent, in all the courts of Europe, as offenfive to Great Britain, and combining thefe appearances with the ftep which the court of Spain had a little time before taken towards his majesty, in avowing its confent, (though that avowal had been followed by apologies) to the memorial prefented the 23d of July, by the Sieur de Buffy, minifter plenipotentiary to the moft Chriftian king, to the king's fecretary of ftate; and his majesty having, afterwards, received intelligence, scarce admitting a doubt, of troops marching, and of military preparations making in all the ports of Spain, judged that his dignity, as well as his prudence, required him to order his ambaffador at Madrid, by a dispatch dated the 28th of October, to demand, in terms, the most measured however, and the most amicable, a communication of the treaty recently concluded between the courts of Madrid and Versailles, or at least of the articles which might relate to the interefts of Great Britain, and, in order to avoid every thing which could be thought to imply the leaft flight of the dignity, or even the delicacy of his Catholic majefty, the earl of Briftol was authorised to content himself with affurances, in case the Catholic king offered to give any, that the faid engagements did not contain any thing that was contrary to the friendfhip which fubfifted between the two crowns, or that was prejudicial to the interefts of Great Britain, fuppofing that any difficulty was made in fhewing the treaty. The king could not give a lefs equivocal proof of his dependence on the good faith of the Catholic king, than in fhewing him an unbounded confidence, in fo important an affair, and which fo effentially interefted his own dignity, the good of his kingdoms, and the happiness of his people. How great, then, was the king's furprize, when, inftead of receiving the juft fatisfaction which he had a right to expect, he learnt from his ambaffador, that, having addreffed himself to the minister of Spain for that purpose, he could only draw from him a refufal to give a fatiffactory anfwer to his majesty's juft requifitions, which he had accompanied with terms that breathed nothing but haughtiness, animofity, and menace; and which feemed fo ftrongly to verify the fufpicions of the unamicable difpofition of the court of Spain, that nothing lefs. than his majesty's moderation, and. his refolution taken to make all the efforts poffible to avoid the misfortunes infeparable from a rupture,. could determine him to make a laft trial; by giving orders to his ambaffador to addrefs himself to the minifter of Spain, to defire him. to inform him of the intentions of the court of Madrid towards that of Great Britain in this conjun&ure, if they had taken engagements, or formed formed the defign to join the king's enemies in the prefent war, or to depart, in any manner, from the neutrality they had hitherto obferved; and to make that minifter fenfible, that if they perfifted in refufing all fatisfaction on demands fo juft, fo neceflary, and fo interefting, the king could not but confider fuch a refufal as the most authentie avowal, that Spain had taken her part, and that there only remained for his majefty to take the measures which his royal prudence fhould dictate for the honour and dignity of his crown, and for the profperity and protection of his people: and to re-call his ambassador. Unhappily for the public tranquillity, for the intereft of the two nations, and for the good of mankind, this laft ftep was as fruitless as the preceding ones; the Spanish minifter keeping no farther meafures, answered drily, "That it "was in that very moment that "the war was declared, and the 66 king's dignity attacked, and "that the earl of Bristol might re"tire how, and when he fhould "think proper." And in order to fet in its true light the declaration, "That, if the refpect due to his Catholic majefty had been regarded, ex"planations might have been "had without any difficulty, and "that the minifters of Spain might "have faid frankly, as Monf. de "Fuentes, by the king's exprefs "order, declares publickly, that "the faid treaty is only a con"vention between the family of "Bourbon; in which there is no"thing which has the leaft rela"tion to the prefent war; and that "the guaranty which is there"in fpecified, is not to be under "food but of the dominions, "which fhall remain to France "after the war." It is declared, that, very far from thinking of being wanting to the respect, acknowledged to be due to crowned heads, the inftructions given to the earl of Bristol, have always been to make the requifitions, on the subject of the engagements between the courts of Madrid and Versailles, with all the decency, and all the attention poffible: and the demand of a categorical anfwer was not made till after repeated, and moft ftinging refufals to give the least satisfaction, and at the last extremity. Therefore if the court of Spain ever had the deign to give this so neceflary fatisfaction, they had not the leaft reafon that ought to have engaged them to defer it to the moment, when it could no longer be of use. But, fortunately, the terms, in which the declaration is conceived, fpare us the regret of not having received it fooncr; for it appears at the first fight, that the answer is not at all conformable to the demand: wanted to be informed, If the court of Spain intended to join the French, our enemies, to make war on Great Britain, or to depart from their newtrality; whereas the anfwer concerns one treaty only, which is faid to be of the 15th of Auguft, carefully avoiding to fay the leaft word that could explain, in any manner, the intentions of Spain towards Great Britain, or the further engagements they may have contracted in the prefent crifis. we After a deduction, as exact as faithful, of what has paffed between the two courts, it is left to the impartial publick to decide, which of the two has always been inclined to peace, |