e southern empire, and the limitation of their
claims beyond the line, it cannot be imputed to any very culpable
remissness, that what has been denied for two centuries to the European
powers, was not obtained in a hasty wrangle about a petty settlement.

The ministry were too well acquainted with negotiation to fill their
heads with such idle expectations. The question of right was
inexplicable and endless. They left it, as it stood. To be restored to
actual possession was easily practicable. This restoration they required
and obtained.

But they should, say their opponents, have insisted upon more; they
should have exacted not only, reparation of our honour, but repayment of
our expense. Nor are they all satisfied with the recovery of the costs
and damages of the present contest; they are for taking this opportunity
of calling in old debts, and reviving our right to the ransome of
Manilla.

The Manilla ransome has, I think, been most mentioned by the inferiour
bellowers of sedition. Those who lead the faction know that it cannot be
remembered much to their advantage. The followers of lord Rockingham
remember, that his ministry began and ended without obtaining it; the
adherents to Grenville would be told, that he could never be taught to
understand our claim. The law of nations made little of his knowledge.
Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. If he was sometimes
wrong, he was often right. [29]

Of reimbursement the talk has been more confident, though not more
reasonable. The expenses of war have been often desired, have been
sometimes required, but were never paid; or never, but when resistance
was hopeless, and there remained no choice between submission and
destruction.

Of our late equipments, I know not from whom the charge can be very
properly expected. The king of Spain disavows the violence which
provoked us to arm, and for the mischiefs, which he did not do, why
should he pay? Buccarelli, though he had learned all the arts of an
East Indian governour, could hardly have collected, at Buenos Ayres, a
sum sufficient to satisfy our demands. If he be honest, he is hardly
rich; and if he be disposed to rob, he has the misfortune of being
placed, where robbers have been before him.

The king of Spain, indeed, delayed to comply with our proposals, and our
armament was made necessary by unsatisfactory answers and dilatory
debates. The delay certainly increased our expenses, and, it is not
unlike