The incapacity of the predecessors of Chatham had encouraged the two ministers in their aggressive designs. George Grenville, according to Johnson, "had powers not universally possessed; could he have enforced payment of the Manilla Ransom, he could have counted it,"[1] but how to enforce payment of it was beyond his comprehension. To Chatham these delays were intolerable. Aware of the hostile intentions of France and Spain, he attempted to form a great northern alliance for defensive purposes, and confiding this negotiation to Conway, Sir Andrew Mitchell and Mr. Stanley,[2] he instructed Shelburne to insist on the immediate settlement of the outstanding claims of England against France and Spain. Shelburne himself was keenly desirous to preserve the Peace of 1763, towards the conclusion of which he had himself contributed, but he had also a keen sense of the honour of the country. He informed Masserano, the Spanish Ambassador, of "the steady resolution of the King's servants to insist on the just claim of his subjects to the ransom of Manilla, and with the unalterable sentiments of His Majesty and his ministers on the equity of his demand,"[3] adding "that if the Spaniards in talking of their possessions included the American and Southern Seas, and our navigating these gave occasion to them to suspect a war, he had no hesitation to say that he would advise one, if they insisted on renewing such a vague and strange pretension long since worn out."[4] Similar
- ↑ Boswell's Life of Johnson, ii. 135.
- ↑ The negotiations for this alliance failed, owing to Russia insisting on making a Turkish war into a casus foederis, and to the doubts entertained by Frederick the Great of the stability of the English administration, which caused him to prefer a close alliance with Russia. The partition of Poland was also already on the tapis. Frederick had in fact not forgotten his alleged desertion by Bute (Memoirs of Frederick II., 317, 429-430), which is still a fruitful subject of controversy. See the "Buckinghamshire Papers," vol. i., in the Publications of the Royal Historical Society, 1902, and de Ruville, Life of Chatham, ii. 1 6, iii. ch. i.; also the observations of Prince Bismarck, Gedanken und Erinnerungen, ii. 233, 234.
- ↑ Shelburne to Devisme, August 22nd, 1766.
- ↑ Paper endorsed "Lord Shelburne's conversation with Prince Masserano about navigating in the Southern Seas, the Falkland Islands, etc., 1767.
Spain again protested, and France, glad of an opportunity of conciliating an ally by a concession in itself of no value, transferred the settlement to Spain. At the same time as Bougainville, Commodore Byron settled one of the islands, and it was against this settlement called Port Egmont that the Spaniards now protested.
