But in case even this should not be accepted of, the lords have nothing farther to suggest to you, but the taking up the third alternative in my counter-project, viz. that the King should give up all the claims and demands of any of his subjects, arising from seizures, reprisals, &c., which it is certain is all that his Majesty can do consistent with the laws and constitution of this country, unless the court of Spain will enable him to give up the debts of the company by granting a compensation to them. I have only to add that if this alternative is adopted by the Spanish ministers upon the failure of the first, that you should by no means consent to any secret article by which the King should preclude himself from making use of his royal name and authority in support of the private rights of the South Sea company, or any other of his subjects whatsoever. 1750. I am, &c. BEDFORD. THE DUKE OF BEDFORD TO MR. KEENE. (Private and secret.) Dear Sir, Whitehall, October 26. 1750. Though you will be fully apprised by my public letter of this day's date of the approbation of his Majesty and of their Excellencies the Lords 1750. Justices in regard to the treaty signed by you at Madrid, yet I cannot avoid troubling you with this private letter, to assure you I sincerely join with the rest of your friends in congratulating you on the success of your endeavours, which have been exerted with so much sagacity and good conduct, that I can, without flattering you, venture to affirm, they have contributed greatly, if not entirely, to the bringing to this state of perfection the very difficult and important transactions, with the conducting of which his Majesty thought proper to honour you. As all the real advantages of the treaty of 1715 are fully secured to us by the present one, and as the small variations in which this differs from the former are calculated for our advantage, particularly the inserting in the 4th article the words. ni sobre otras valuaciones and the word pretenciones in the last, give, in the first place, a total exclusion to any future quibbles about the evaluation of British goods, with which you had so much trouble at your first setting out with M. de Carvajal and M. Ensenada, and in the second place takes from those ministers and their successors any pretence for the future to mention any expectations that may formerly have been given of the crown's parting with any possessions that the circumstances of the times will not admit of. I flatter myself all impartial and disinterested persons will see this treaty in the same advantageous light to the nation as the king and his servants have done. The 100,000l. given to the South Sea company as a compensation for their giving up the four years of the annual ship and the assiento of Negroes they were entitled to, as well as for the total extrication of all demands from the crown of Spain on the company, and from the company on the crown of Spain, ought to be considered by all impartial people not as a sum adequate entirely to the sacrifice the company must make on the foot of this treaty, but as a sum (if I may so call it) snatched out of the fire, and which, without the intervention of his Majesty, they could never, considering the impossibility of liquidating the accounts between the King of Spain and them, have received a farthing of. Besides all this, the national advantages gained by this treaty, for putting the commerce of Great Britain upon a better footing than it has ever been in since the time of King Charles II. of Spain, ought surely to be considered preferably to those of any company, though ever so considerable, especially as it is in the power of the public to make a reasonable satisfaction to the company for the sacrifice they have been obliged to make for the general advantage of the nation. This argument alone seems to me sufficient to satisfy all reasonable and well-disposed people; but when to this is added the absolute impossibility there was of obtaining a more ample compensation than that now given, and that which, in my opinion, seems the thing of the most real national advantage, I mean the detaching the court of Madrid from its subjection to that of Versailles, and, if I may so call it, 1750. 1750. taking it out of wardship; surely in considering the treaty in this great light, all the nation must agree in the rightness of the measure. Upon the whole I cannot sufficiently express to you the satisfaction I felt in receiving your despatch with a copy of the treaty, and I trust you will believe that its having come to this perfection in your hands, and through your management, was no small addition to the content it gave me, being, with the greatest truth*, "Last night came an ex- Mr. Pelham to Mr. Pitt. The Duke of Newcastle, pro- "But come, I must tell you big news; the treaty of commerce with Spain is arrived signed. Yours, &c. BEDFORD. Nobody expected it would ever come, which is, I believe, the reason it is reckoned so good. In general they say, the South Sea Company is to have 100,000%. in lieu of their annual ship, which, if it is not above the 94,0001. that was allowed to be due to them, it appears to me only as if there were some half-p -pence remaining when the bill was paid, and the King of Spain had given them to the company to drink his health. What does look well for the treaty is, that stocks rise to high water mark; and, what is to me as clear, is that the exploded Don Bengamin* has repaired what the Patriot Lord Sandwich had forgot, or not known to do, at Aix-la-Chapelle." * Abused by the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole under that name, for having made the Convention in 1729.- Walpole's Letters, vol. ii. p. 359. THE DUKE OF BEDFORD TO THE EARL OF My Lord, ALBEMARLE. Whitehall, November 26. 1750. I have his Majesty's orders to direct your Excellency to take the first opportunity of acquainting M. de Puisieux that Mr. Keene signed, on the 5th day of October last, N. S., a treaty of commerce with the Spanish minister, M. de Carvajal, in order to settle the several points depending with that crown, in relation to the four years of non jouissance of the Assiento contract, and the debts mutually due from that crown to the company, and from the company to the King of Spain, as likewise some commercial points, which wanted some explanation upon the foot of the ancient treaties. I despatched the ratifications to Mr. Keene by Jackson the messenger on the 6th instant; but I have as yet received no account of his arrival at Madrid. This has been the reason why your Excellency has not before this received his Majesty's orders to communicate this treaty in form to the French court, as the King was unwilling, without first being acquainted with the sentiments of the Court of Spain, to make any previous communication of a treaty which relates solely to the two nations. But, as General Wall has informed me that M. Pignatelli has received orders from his court to communicate it, his Majesty judges no time should be lost in your Excellency acquainting M. de Puisieux with 1750. |