Now feel of being allowed to enjoy the fruits of his labors, muft operate uniformly as incitements to labor and industry." This could not but be construed as a bitter fatire on the conduct of his predeceffor; and as amounting to a very explicit acknowledgment of the mifery and oppreffion which the inhabitants had long suffered under his capricious, haughty, and tyrannical domina

tion.

In the month of April Mr. Pitt prefented, as ufual, his ftatement of the national revenue and expenditure; and it was very confolatory to the public to be informed that the receipt of the exchequer had furpaffed that of the year preceding in the sum of half a million, and more fo to be told that ftill greater acceffions might reasonably be hoped from the uninterrupted enjoyment of the ineftimable bleffings of peace. It therefore excited peculiar aftonishment, when in about a fortnight from this period, viz. May 5th, 1790, a royal meffage was delivered by the minister, announcing a state of things which bore the undisguised and menacing afpect of war.

To elucidate this matter, it is neceffary to mention that the celebrated circumnavigator Cook, in his laft voyage of discovery, touching at divers ports on the weftern coast of North America, purchased from the natives a number of valuable furs bearing a high price in the Chinese market. This branch of commerce, proving very lucrative, a fpot of ground was in the year 1788 procured from the indians, and a regular eftablishment, defended by a flight fortification, formed at a place called Nootka Sound, fituated about the 50th degree of latitude.

This being regarded by the Spaniards as a flagrant encroachment on their exclufive rights of fovereignty, the Princeffa, a Spanish man of war difpatched for this purpofe by the viceroy of Mexico, in the following fpring, feized without ceremony upon the fort, and captured fuch English

English veffels, the Iphigenia, Argonaut, &c. as were found trading on the coaft. At the fame time the Spanish commandant, hoifting the national standard, declared that the whole line of coaft from Cape Horn to the 60th degree of latitude belonged to the king of Spain. After fome delay, and much lofs and vexation to the proprietors, the captured veffels were restored by order of the viceroy, on the fuppofition, as he declared, “that nothing but ignorance of the rights of Spain could have induced the merchants in queftion to attempt an establishment on that coaft."

Of these particulars the court of London was informed by the Spanish ambaffador fo long fince as the 10th of Feruary; and his excellency at the fame time requested "that measures might be taken for preventing his Britannic majefty's fubjects from frequenting those coafts, and from carrying on their fifheries in the feas contiguous to the Spanish continent, as derogatory to the inconteftible rights of the crown of Spain." This was the exact counterpart of the memorable affair of Falkland Islands, which had fo nearly involved Europe in a war twenty years before. The minifter of that day, had he continued in power, would doubtless have avoided ftriking a fecond time upon the fame rock; but it has been obferved, not without too much color of plaufibility, from facts like the prefent, that although individuals gain wisdom by experience, nations do not.

The claims of Spain, in relation to her rights of dominion and fovereignty in America, were doubtless in the highest degree chimerical, and could perhaps be equalled in extravagance only by the claims of Great Britain. By the treaty of 1763 the river Miffiffippi, flowing from north to fouth in a direct courfe of 1500 miles, was made the perpetual boundary of the two empires; and the whole country to the weft of that vaft river beionged to his catholic majefty, by just as valid a tenure as the country VOL. II. eastward

Gg

eastward of the river to the king of England. Exclufive of this recent and decifive line of demarcation, by which the relative and political rights of both nations were clearly afcertained, the Spanish court referred to antient treaties, by which the rights of the crown of Spain were acknowledged in their full extent by Great Britain.

Charles III. king of Spain died December 1788, and his fon Charles IV. the prefent fovereign, confiding in the juftice of his claims, offered with dignified candor to fubmit the decifion of this question to any one of the kings of Europe, leaving the choice wholly to his Britannic majefty. "It is fufficient (fays the Spanish minifter, count Florida Blanca) for the Spanish monarch, that a crowned head, from full information of the facts, fhall decide as he thinks juft; adding, that on a late application to the court of St. Petersburgh, in relation to fimilar encroachments on the part of the Ruffians, the empress had given the moft pofitive orders that no fettlement fhould be formed on that line of coaft. As to the non occupancy of the particular spot in queftion by the Spaniards, the court of Madrid juftly obferved, that fuch a plea, if admitted, would tend, by the incongruous intermixture of fettlements, to the utter annihilation of all definite and permanent boundaries."

The reply of the court of London to the memorial of the Spanish ambaffador was high and haughty. "The act of violence mentioned in the memorial, neceffarily fufpended any difcuffion till an adequate atonement had been made for a proceeding fo injurious to Great Britain."

On the statement of these facts in the royal meffage, the house unanimously joined in an address to the king, affuring his majesty of the determination of his faithful commons to afford his majefty the most zealous and affectionate support, in fuch measures as may become requifite for maintaining the dignity of his majesty's crown, and the effential interests of his dominions." A vote of

credit

credit paffed the houfe for the fum of one million; and vigorous military and naval preparations were made in both kingdoms, in the contemplation of an immediate declaration of war.

It must be acknowledged that the hoftile procedure of Spain had reduced the English miniftry to a difficult dilemma. The value of the fettlement at Nootka, in a commercial and national view, was beneath all calculation of infignificance; and it argued culpable inattention in the British minifters, not to have been better and earlier apprised of the extent of the real or imaginary rights of Spain, whose jealoufy at the flighteft infringement upon thofe rights was fufficiently notorious. This extreme irritability was the more pardonable, as Spain had ever with the strictest honor abstained from all violations of the fimilar claims and pretenfions of other countries. A moment's reflection must have evinced, that a British fettlement on the coast of California must be eventually productive of a serious contention with the court of Madrid and a flight degree of discretion would have sufficed to obviate this ground of national quarrel. But in confequence of the rash step taken by Spain, the NATIONAL HONOR was now at ftake: and Mr. Grey, in moving for papers relative to this tranfaction, juftly obferved, "that national honor was not, as fome reprefented it, a vifionary thing; a nation without honor was a nation without power. In lofing this ineftimable attribute, it inevitably lost the genuine fpring of its spirit, energy and action. Every nation therefore ought to be careful of its honor; to be careful left by one mean fubmiffion it encouraged an attack upon the dignity of its characterthat best security for the prefervation of its peace:"

These high and elevated fentiments, fuggefted by the generous ardor of youth, Mr. Burke's long and eventful experience feemed to regard as fufceptible nevertheless of fome modification. "He hoped that the national honor

would not be found incompatible with the means of amicable accommodation. As we never ought to go to war for a profitable wrong, fo we ought never go to war for an unprofitable right. He therefore trufted that the intended armament would be considered not as a measure calculated to terminate the war happily, but to carry on the negotiation vigorously. He wished the war might be avoided. He had feen three wars, and we were gainers by none of them. Our ability and refources were doubtlefs great; but then did a country prove its magnanimity moft clearly, when the manifefted her moderation to be proportionate to her power. What indeed had we to contend for? If all the diftant territories of Spain were thrown into the scale of England, we fhould, like Spain, be only the weaker for our acquifitions."

On the 10th of June, 1790, the king terminated the feffion, and in his fpeech fignified the probability of a fpeedy diffolution of the prefent parliament; affuring them in handsome terms of " the deep and grateful fense which he entertained of that affectionate and unfhaken loyalty, that uniform and zealous regard for the true principles of the conftitution, that unremitted attention to the public happiness and prosperity, which had invariably directed all their proceedings;" and on the day following the parliament was diffolved by proclamation.

Conscious of her inability to contend alone with the power of England, Spain had in an early ftage of the negotiation applied to the court of France, to know how far. fhe could depend, in present circumftances, upon the fulfilment of the conditions of the family compact in cafe of a rupture with Great Britain.

From the period of the king's compulfive removal to Paris, no fymptoms of oppofition to the will of the nation had appeared; and by feeming cheerfully to acquiefce in the fucceffive decrees of the affembly, he had in fome measure recovered what of all things is moft difficult to

regain