19th of October, he wrote to
the Bishop concerning the donation-dodge, in the following polite and
peremptory terms;--"Most Illustrious Sir, I am sorry to be under the
necessity of writing to your Lordship what ought to have been thought of
some days ago, namely, a donation from the Church to the
Commander-in-Chief of the victorious army. The least that your Lordship
can offer will be one hundred thousand dollars. I wish to live in peace
with your Lordship and with the Church, as I have shown in all that has
hitherto occurred, and I hope that your Lordship will not give me reason
to alter my intentions. I kiss your Lordship's hand. Your humble
servant, Albemarle." The Bishop, though a clever and clear-sighted man,
could not see this matter in the light in which Lord Albemarle looked
upon it. He thought the demand a violation of the terms of surrender;
and he sought the mediation of Admiral Pocock, but without strengthening
his position. To a demand for the list of benefices, coupled with the
declaration that non-compliance would lead to the Bishop's being
proclaimed a violator of the treaty, the prelate replied, that he would
refer the matter, and some others, to the courts of Spain and England.
Upon this the British General lost all patience, and issued a
proclamation, declaring "that the conduct of the Bishop was seditious;
that he had forgotten that he was now a subject of Great Britain; and
that it was absolutely necessary he should be expelled from the island,
and sent to Florida in one of the British ships of war, in order that
public tranquillity might be maintained, and that good correspondence
and harmony might continue between the new and the old subjects of the
King, which the conduct of the Bishop had visibly interrupted." The
whole of this business presents the English commander in a most
contemptible light. Not content with the six hundred thousand dollars
which he had already pocketed, as his share of the spoil, he assumed the
part of Bull Beggar toward the Bishop, in the hope that he might extort
one hundred thousand dollars more from the Church, for his own personal
benefit, for the "donation" was not to go into the common stock; and
when his threats failed, he turned tyrant at the expense of a venerable
officer of the most ancient of Christian churches. What an outcry would
be raised in England, if an American commander were to make a similar
display of avarice and cruelty!

The manner in which the sp