too, subject to a drawback), it is evidently a fallacious
nominal payment only. I will not attempt to enter
into the detail of a dark, confused, and scarcely
intelligible account; I will only beg leave to conclude
with one word upon it, in the light of a submission,
as well as of an adequate reparation. Spain stipulates
to pay to the Crown of England ninety-five thousand
pounds; by a preliminary protest of the King of Spain,
the South Sea Company is at once to pay sixty-eight
thousand of it: if they refuse, Spain, I admit,
is still to pay the ninety-five thousand pounds—but
how does it stand then? The Assiento contract
is to be suspended; you are to purchase this sum at
the price of an exclusive trade, pursuant to a national
treaty, and of an immense debt of God knows how many
hundred thousand pounds due from Spain to the South
Sea Company. Here, Sir, is the submission of Spain,
by the payment of a stipulated sum; a tax laid upon
subjects of England, under the severest penalties,
with the reciprocal accord of an English minister,
as a preliminary that the convention may be signed;
a condition imposed by Spain in the most absolute,
imperious manner, and received by the Ministers of
England in the most tame and abject. Can any
verbal distinctions, any evasions whatever, possibly
explain away this public infamy? To whom would
we disguise it? To ourselves and to the nation.
I wish we could hide it from the eyes of every court
in Europe. They see Spain has talked to you like
your master; they see this arbitrary fundamental condition,
and it must stand with distinction, with a pre-eminence
of shame, as a part even of this convention.
This convention, Sir, I think from my soul, is nothing
but a stipulation for national ignominy; an illusory
expedient, to baffle the resentment of the nation;
a truce without the suspension of hostilities on the
part of Spain; on the part of England a suspension,
as to Georgia, of the first law of nature, self-preservation
and self-defence—surrender of the rights
and trade of England to the mercy of plenipotentiaries,
and in this infinitely highest and sacred point, future
security, not only inadequate, but directly repugnant
to the resolutions of Parliament, and the gracious
promise from the Throne. The complaints of your
despairing merchants, the voice of England, has condemned
it. Be the guilt of it upon the head of the adviser.
God forbid that this committee should share the guilt
by approving it!
[Footnote 1: The House of Commons, in a grand
committee, in 1737, had heard counsel for the merchants,
and received evidence at the bar, on the subject of
the Spanish depredations.]
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