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two free republics of France and Holland. That treaty of mutual defence by which the independent Batavian nation, fupported by a powerful neighbour, and unflaken by the influence of a foreign minifter, will be put in a condition to employ for the future its forces against its aggreffors, and of paying them in their own coin, has alfo been cemented.

His majefty, the king of Great Britain, after fo many hoftilities have been exercifed, was at length pleafed to proclaim, on the 19th of September, 1795, by his council of ftate, a declaration of war against this republic, but in which no ground of complaint was alleged. His majefty, it is true, fays in this manifefto," that for fome time divers acts of outrage, contrary to the honour of his majefty's crown, and to the legitimate rights of his fubjects, had been committed in the United Provinces, and that the fhips of war which failed from the ports of the United Provinces, had received orders to take and fink all British veffels." The acts contrary to the honour of his majesty's crown which had been committed in the Netherlands, are the acts of his majesty's own troops, and the English nation will, undoubtedly, fooner or later, punish their authors; and with refpect to the orders given to the hips of war of the republic, to repel violence by violence, has not the independent republic, fo cruelly treated, a right of refiftance? His majefty had forgotten that the Netherlands were no longer under the ftadtholderian yoke, and that his majesty's minifters had loft for ever, as we trust, for the safety of the country, all influence over the independent Batavian republic.

It is therefore with a perfect con

fidence in that love of the country, in that energy, and in that courage with which liberty alone can infpire a nation, for a long time infulted and oppreffed, that the independent Batavian nation folemnly declares in the face of Europe, through the organ of its legitimate reprefenta tives, that, obliged to defend itfelf against the acts of perfidy and violence of the neighbouring kingdom of Great Britain, it will repel every act of aggreffion on its liberty, its independence, its rights, and its legitimate poffeffions; and that it will put in execution all poffible means to receive fatisfaction and indemnity for the incalculable loffes it has fuftained through a perfidious ally:-in the firm hope that Divine Providence, who has fo miracu loufly preferved this country from a total ruin, will blefs its arms, and will not allow violence and op preffion ever to fix their fatal abode on its free territory.

Done at the Hague, May 2, 1796, fecond year of Batavian freedom.

Manifefto of the Court of Spain againft Great Britain, 08. 5, 1796:

One of the principal motives that determined me to make peace with the French republic, as soon as its government had begun to affume a regular and ftable form, was the manner in which England behaved to me during the whole of the war, and the just miftruft which I ought to feel for the future from the experience of her bad faith, which began to be manifested at the most critical moment of the first campaign; in the manner with which admiral Hood treated my fquadron at Toulon, where he was employed folely in ruining all that he could (H 2)

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not carry away himself; and afterwards in the expedition which he undertook against the island of Corfica-an expedition which he undertook without the knowledge of, and which he concealed with the greatest care from, don Juan de Langara, while they were together at Toulon.

This fame bad faith the English' minifter has fuffered clearly to appear by his filence upon the fubject of all his negotiations with other powers, particularly in the treaty concluded on the 19th November, 1794, with the United States of America, without any regard to my rights, which were well known to him. I remarked it again in his repugnance to the adoption of my plans and ideas which might accelerate the termination of the war, and in the vague reply which lord Grenville gave to my ambaffador, the marquis del Campo, when he demanded fuccours of him to continue it. He completely confirmed me in the certainty of his bad faith, by the injuftice with which he appropriated the rich cargo of the Spanish thip el Santiago, or l'Achille, at first taken by the French, and afterwards retaken by the English íquadron, and which ought to have been reftored to me according to the convention made between my fecretary of ftate and lord St. Helen's, ambaffador from his Britannic majefty afterwards by the detention of all the ammunition which arrived in the Dutch fhips for the fupply of my fquadrons, by affecting always different difficulties to put off the reftitution of them. Finally, I could no longer entertain a doubt of the bad faith of England, when I learnt the frequent landing from her fhips upon the coafts of Chili and Peru, in order to carry on a contraband trade, and to re9

connoitre the fhore under the pretence of fifhing for whales, a privilege which the pretended to have granted her by the convention of Nootka. Such were the proceedings of the British minifter to cement the ties of friendship and reciprocal confidence, which he had engaged to maintain according to our convention of the 25th May, 1793.

Since I have made peace with the French republic, not only have I had ftronger motives for fuppofing an intention on the part of England to attack my poffeffions in America, but I have alfo received direct infults which perfuade me that the English minifter wishes to oblige me to adopt a part contrary to the interefts of humanity, injured by the bloody war which ravages Europe, for the termination of which I have not ceased to offer my good offices, and to teftify my conftant folicitude.

In fact, England has developed her intentions, has clearly evinced her project of getting poffeffion of my territories, by fending to the Antilles a confiderable force, and particularly deftined against Santo Domingo, as the proclamations of her general in that ifland clearly demonstrate. She has alfo made known her intentions by the establifhments which her commercial companies have formed upon the banks of the Miffouri, in North America, with the defign of penetrating through thofe countries to the South Sea. Finally, by the conqueft which fhe has made of the colony of Demerary, belonging to the Dutch, and whofe advantageous polition puts her in a condition to get poffeffion of pofts ftill more important.

But there can no longer remain any doubt of the hoftile nature of thefe projects, when I confider the

frequent

frequent infults to my flag, the acts of violence committed in the Mediterranean by her frigates, which have carried away foldiers coming from Genoa to Barcelona, on board Spanish fhips, to complete my armies; the piracies and vexations which the Corfican and Anglo-Corfican corfairs, protected by the English government of that ifland, exercise against the Spanish trade, in the Mediterranean, and even upon the coasts of Catalonia, and the detention of different Spanish fhips, laden with Spanith property, and carried to England under the most frivolous pretences, and efpecially the rich cargo of the Spanish fhip the Minerva, on which an embargo was laid in the moft infulting manner to my flag, and the removal of which could not be obtained, though it was demonstrated before the competent tribunals that this rich cargo was Spanish property.

The attack committed upon my ambaffador, don Simon de las Cafas, by a tribunal of London, which decreed his arreft, founded upon the demand of a very small fum which was claimed by the undertaker of an embarkation, is another outrage. Finally, the Spanish territory has been violated in an intolerable manner upon the coafts of Galicia and Alicant by the English fhips the Cameleon and the Kanguroo. Moreover, captain George Vaughan, commodore of the Alarm, behaved in a manner equally infolent and fcandalous in the island of Trinity, where he landed with drums beating and flags flying, to attack the French, and to avenge the injuries which he pretended to have received, disturbing, by the violation of the rights of my fovereignty, the tranquillity of the inhabitants of the island.

By all these infults, equally deep

and unparalleled, that nation has proved to the universe, that the recognizes no other laws than the aggrandifement of her commerce; and by her defpotifm, which has exhaufted my patience and moderation, fhe has forced me, as well to fupport the honour of my crown, as to protect my people against her attacks, to declare war against the king of England, his kingdom and vaffals, and to give orders and take the neceffary measures for the defence of my domains and my sub. jects, and to repulfe the enemy.

Signed by the King, and the
Secretary of the Council
of War.

Done at the Palace of
St. Laurenzo, OЯ. 5, 1796.

On Saturday, the 8th of October, war was proclaimed at Madrid in the ufual form.

Anfwer of the British Government to the Spanish Declaration of War.

The open aggreffions of Spain, the violences committed against the perfons and property of his majefty's fubjects, and the unprovoked declaration of war on the part of that power, have at length compelled his majefty to take the neceffary measures for repelling force by force, and for vindicating the dignity of his crown, and the rights and interefts of his people.

At the moment of adopting thefe measures, his majefty feels it due to himself to remove every doubt which can be thrown on the indif putable juftice of his caufe; and it will be easily proved, from the very reafons adduced by the court of Madrid in fupport of its declaration of war, that all the calamities which may enfue are folely to be attributed to the conduct of his enemies. A simple reference to that decla(H 3) ration,

ration, and a bare enumeration of the vague and frivolous charges which it contains, would indeed be fufficient to fatisfy all reafonable and impartial minds, that no part of the conduct of Great Britain to wards Spain has afforded the fmalleft ground of complaint, much lefs ány motive fufficiently powerful for adding to the prefent calamities of Europe all the evils of a new and complicated war.

The only difficulty of a detailed reply arifes not from the ftrength and importance of the complaints alleged, but from their weakness and futility from the confufed and unintelligible fhape in which they are brought forward, and from the impoflibility of referring them to any established principle or rule of justice, to any ufual form or topic of complaint between independent governments, or to any of thofe motives which can alone create the painful duty of an appeal

to arms.

The acts of hoftility attributed to his majefty in the manifefto of Spain, confift either of matters perfely innocent and indifferent in their nature, or of imputed opinions and intentions, of which no proof is adduced, nor any effect alleged; or, laftly, of complaints of the misconduct of unauthorized individuals; refpecting all which his majefty has never failed to inftitute inquiry, where inquiry was neceffary, and to caufe juftice to be done in the regular courfe of judicial proceedings. The very nature of fuch complaints affords a fufficient anfwer to the conclufion attempted to be drawn from them by Spain; and his majefty might have been well juftified in declining all further difcuffion on points, on which it was manifeft that no just

motive of hoftility could be ground, ed.

Such, however, was not his conduct. Anxious to avert from both kingdoms the calamities of war, he has repeatedly and vainly propofed to adjuft, by friendly difcuffion, all points of difference which could fubfift between the governments of two nations whofe real interests were the fame, and who had an equal concern in oppofing the progrefs of a common enemy.

This difcuffion having always been studiously avoided by the court of Madrid, it now remains only for his majefty to vindicate in this public manner his own caufe, and to prove the futility of thofe pretences by which that court now fecks to colour its aggreffion.

The firft point brought forward to fupport an accufation of ill faith is the conduct of the king's admiral at Toulon who is charged with having deftroyed thofe fhips and naval ftores of the enemy which he could not carry away with him; and with having afterwards undertaken an expedition to Corfica, without the knowledge or participation of the Spanish admiral. To an accufation of fuch a nature, alleged as ground of war between two great nations, it can hardly be expected that a ferious anfwer fhould be given. It is perhaps the first time that it has been imputed as a crime to one of the commanding officers of two powers acting in alliance, and making a common caufe in war, that he did more than his proportion of mischief to the common enemy. And if it be really true that fuch a fentiment was entertained at Madrid, certainly no other juftification can be neceffary for not inviting the officers of that court to join in fubfequent expe

ditions

ditions against the fame enemy: at all events, it cannot be pretended that a co-operation between two allies (however cordial and fincere) in any one particular enterprize, could afterwards reftrain either of them from undertaking feparately any other, to which his own force appeared in itfelf to be adequate.

The fecond inftance of ill-faith attributed to his majefty is the conclufion of a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States of America; a power with whom both Great Britain and Spain were at peace; with whom the king, as well as his catholic majefty, was perfectly free to contract any fuch engagement; and with whom the court of Madrid has actually concluded a fimilar treaty, with this difference only, that the ftipulations of the British treaty can give no ground of offence or injury to any other power, while the Spanish treaty contains an article (that refpecting the navigation of the Miffiffippi) which, if it could have any force or effect at all, would be, on the part of Spain, a direct breach of treaty with Great Britain, and a grofs violation of the important and unquestionable rights of his majefty and his people.

The fame ill-faith is faid to have been manifefted in the unwillingnefs fhewn by the British government to adopt the plans propofed by Spain for haftening the conclufion of the war with France, (but what thefe plans were, it is not stated,) and alfo in omitting to comply with an application made by Spain for pecuniary fuccours, as neceffary to enable her to act against the common enemy. The failure of fuch an application cannot certainly be matter of furprize to any one who confiders the fituation and conduct of Spain during

the war.

It can hardly be alleged, even as an excufe for the precipitate peace concluded by Spain, not only without the knowledge of her allies, but in contradiction to repeated and pofitive affurances; but it is difficult to conceive how fuch a refufal can be made the ground of hoftility towards Great Britain, or with what, confiftency the inability of Spain to profecute the former contest without pecuniary aid from its ally,

can have become a motive of en

gaging gratuitoufly in all the expences and difficulties of a new war against that very power.

With regard to the condemnation of the St. Jago (a prize taken from the enemy by his majesty's naval forces), his majefty has only to reply to the injurious affertions on that fubject in the Spanish manifefto, that the claims of all the parties in that caufe were publicly heard and decided according to the known law of nations, and before the only competent tribunal; one, whofe impartiality is above all fufpicion.

The conduct of his majefty re fpecting the naval ftores, which were claimed by Spain on board Dutch veffels, has been in like manner exempt from all blame, nor was any unneceffary delay interpofed refpecting thofe cargoes, till the equivocal conduct of Spain, and the strong and juft fufpicion of her hoftile difpofitions, made it impoffible for his majefty to confent to fupply her from the ports of his dominions with the means of acting againft himself.

The next charge relates to the alleged mifconduct of fome mer. chant fhips in landing their crews on the coafts of Chili and Peru, with a view of carrying on there an illicit commerce, and of reconnoi(H 4)

tring

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