ration, and Grimaldi delayed his anfwer that a council might be called. In a few days orders were dispatched to prince Mafferan, by which he was commiffioned to declare the king of Spain's readinefs to fatisfy the demands of the king of England, in expectation of receiving from him reciprocal fatisfaction, by the difavowal, fo often required, of Hunt's warning. Finding the Spaniards disposed to make no other acknowledgments, the English miniftry confidered a war as not likely to be long avoided. In the latter end of November private notice was given of their danger to the merchants at Cadiz, and the officers abfent from Gibraltar were remanded to their posts. Our naval force was every day increased, and we made no abatement of our original demand. The obftinacy of the Spanish court ftill continued, and about the end of the year all hope of reconciliation was so nearly extinguished, that Mr. Harris was directed to withdraw, with the ufual forms, from his refidence at Madrid. Moderation is commonly firm, and firmnefs is commonly fuccefsful; having not fwelled our first requifition with any fuperfluous appendages, we had nothing to yield, we therefore only repeated our first propofition, prepared for war, though defirous of peace. About this time, as is well known, the king of France difmiffed Choifeul from his employments. What effect this revolution of the French court had upon the Spanish counfels, I pretend not to be informed. Choiseul had always profeffed pacifick difpofitions E 3 pofitions, nor is it certain, however it may be fufpected, that he talked in different ftrains to dif ferent parties. It seems to be almoft the univerfal error of historians to fuppofe it politically, as it is phyfically true, that every effect has a proportionate cause, In the inanimate action of matter upon matter, the motion produced can be but equal to the force of the moving power; but the operations of life, whether private or publick, admit no fuch laws. The caprices of voluntary agents laugh at calculation. It is not always that there is a strong reason for a great event. Obftinacy and flexibility, malignity and kindness, give place alternately to each other, and the reafon of these viciffitudes, however important may be the confequences, often escapes the mind in which the change is made. Whether the alteration which began in January. to appear in the Spanish counfels, had any other caufe than conviction of the impropriety of their paft conduct, and of the danger of a new war, it is not easy to decide; but they began, whatever was the reafon, to relax their haughtiness, and Mr. Harris's departure was countermanded. The demands firft made by England were ftill continued, and on January 22d, the prince of MafJeran delivered a declaration, in which the king of Spain difavows the violent enterprife of Buccarelli, and promises to restore the port and fort called Egmont, with all the artillery and ftores, according to the inventory. To this promife of reftitution is fubjoined that this engagement to restore Port Egmont, cannot, nor ought ought in any wife to affect the question of the prior right of fovereignty of the Malouine otherwife called Falkland's Inlands. This conceffion was accepted by the Earl of Rochford, who declared on the part of his master, that the prince of Masseran being authorized by his catholick majefty, to offer in his majesty's name, to the king of Great Britain, a fatisfaction for the injury done him by difpoffeffing him of Port Egmont, and having figned a declaration expreffing that his catholick majesty difavows the expedition against Port Egmont, and engages to restore it in the state in which it stood before the 10th of June 1770, his Britannick majefty will look upon the faid declaration, together with the full performance of the engagement on the part of his catbolick majesty, as a fatisfaction for the injury done to the crown of Great Britain. This is all that was originally demanded. The expedition is difavowed, and the island is restored. An injury is acknowledged by the reception of Lord Rochford's paper, who twice mentions the word injury and twice the word fatisfaction. The Spaniards have ftipulated that the grant of poffeffion shall not preclude the question of prior right, a question which we shall probably make no hafte to difcufs, and a right of which no formal refignation was ever required. This referve has fupplied matter for much clamour, and perhaps the English miniftry would have been better pleased had the declaration been without it. But when we have obtained all that was afked, why fhould we complain that we have not more? When the poffeffion is conceded, where is the evil that the right, which that conceffion fuppofes to be merely hypothetical, is referred to the Greek calends for a future difquifition? Were the Switzers lefs free or less secure, because after their defection from the house of Auftria they had never been declared independent before the treaty of Weftphalia? Is the king of France lefs a fovereign because the king of England partakes his title ? If fovereignty implies undifputed right, fcarce any prince is a fovereign through his whole dominions; if fovereignty confifts in this, that no fuperior is acknowledged, our king reigns at Port Egmont with fovereign authority. Almoft every new acquired territory is in fome degree controvertible, and till the controverfy is decided, a term very difficult to be fixed, all that can be had is real poffeffion and actual dominion. This furely is a fufficient answer to the feudal gabble of a man who is every day leffening that fplendour of character which once illuminated the kingdom, then dazzled, and afterwards inflamed it; and for whom it will be happy if the nation fhall at last difmifs him to namelefs obfcurity with that equipoife of blame and praife which Corneille allows to Richlieu, a man who, I think, had much of his merit, and many of his faults. Chacun parle a fon gre de ce grand Cardinal, Il m'a fait trop de bien pour en dire du mal, Il m'a fait trop de mal pour en dire du bien, To push advantages too far is neither generous nor juft. Had we infifted on a conceffion of ante cedent cedent right, it may not mifbecome us, either as moralifts or politicians, to confider what Grimaldi could have answered. We have already, he might fay, granted you the whole effect of right, and have not denied you the name. We have not faid that the right was ours before this conceffion, but only that what right we had, is not by this conceffion vacated. We have now for more than two centuries ruled large tracts of the American continent, by a claim which perhaps is valid only upon this confideration, that no power can produce a better; by the right of difcovery and prior fettlement. And by fuch titles almoft all the dominions of the earth are holden, except that their original is beyond memory, and greater obfcurity gives them greater veneration. Should we allow this plea to be annulled, the whole fabrick of cur empire shakes at the foundation. When you fuppose yourselves to have first defcried the disputed inland, you suppose what you can hardly prove. We were at leaft the general difcoverers of the Magellanick region, and have hitherto held it with all its adjacencies. The juftice of this tenure the world has hitherto admitted, and yourfelves at least tacitly allowed it, when about twenty years ago you defifted from your purposed expedition, and expressly disowned any defign of fettling, where you are now not content to fettle and to reign, without extorting fuch a confeffion of original right, as may invite every other nation to follow you. To confiderations fuch as thefe, it is reasonable to impute that anxiety of the Spaniards, from which the |