LETTER XV. IN the year 1728, the depredations of the Spaniards on the British commerce in the European and American seas, had been for a long time flagrant, extensive, cruel, and reproachful. The British nation was highly provoked. THE Committee appointed by the house of commons upon these depredations, after hearing all proper evidence, came on the fourteenth of March, to the following resolution, which being reported was agreed to by the house—“That from the peace concluded at Utrecht in 1713, to this time, the British trade and navigation to and from the several British colonies in America, has been greatly interrupted by continual depredations from the Spaniards, who have seized very valuable effects, and have unjustly taken and made prize of great numbers of British ships and vessels in those parts, to the great loss and damage of the subjects of this kingdom, and in manifest violation of the treaties subsisting between the two crowns.† + Tindal's Cont. of Rapin's Hist. of England, 20. 38. THE house then came to an unanimous resolution, that an address should be presented to the king, "desiring him to use his utmost endeavours, for preventing such depredations, procuring just and reasonable satisfaction for the losses sustained, and securing the free exercise of commerce and navigation." Not long after, the business was taken up again. "The minister did not refuse to his enemies in the house, any paper they could call for, relating to the affairs between Great-Britain and Spain, and the numbers they demanded were very great, and the time they took up in reading, very long. At last, the grand committee, who continued most assiduously to sit, upon the consideration of the complaints against the Spanish depredations, after long debates, resolved--" That several ships, merchandizes, and effects, belonging to the merchants of this kingdom, trading to Spain, Portugal and Italy, have been taken and seized by the Spaniards, in manifest violation of the treaties subsisting between the two crowns, for which no restitution has yet been made; and that the masters and crews of several of the said ships have been barbarously and inhumanly treated."* An address similar to the former was voted and presented. *Tind. Cont. 20. 41. IN 1729, the famous treaty of Seville was made. By the first article, all former treaties and conventions were confirmed. By the second, the two kings guaranteed each others dominions. By the third, all engagements by the treaty of Vienna, prejudicial to the treaties between the two crowns, antecedent to the year 1725, in which the treaty of Vienna was made, were annulled. By the fourth, commerce was to be restored to its former footing, and orders were to be instantly dispatched on all sides for that purpose. By the fifth, the catholic king obliged himself to make reparation for all damages that had been done by his subjects. By the sixth, commissaries were to be appointed on each part to assemble at the court of Spain, to exa. mine and decide concerning ships and effects taken at sea, to the time specified in the preceding article -also, the respective pretensions relating to abuses supposed to be committed, whether with respect to limits, or otherwise--and to make report which should be executed. By the seventh, commissaries were to be appointed for deciding all differences. By the eighth, the time for the several commissaries finishing their commissions, is limitted to three years. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth contained regulations which it is needless to mention.† Tind. Cont. 20. 51. ple, into whose hearts we are to plunge those very swords that by their aid at the expence of their blood and their treasure have been put into our hands. HEAVEN FORBID! that American gratitude should become a by-word among civilized nations to the latest ages, emphatically to describe that supremacy of depravity, which no other terms can fully define. Then, indeed, it may be some consolation to our darkened and perverted minds, that "punic faith" will be its allied companion. FABIUS. |