grations; and which, in its meaning to the somnambulant Nation,
is so immense. No notice taken of it; huddled together, some hasty
shovelful or two of diplomatic ashes cast on it, 'As good as extinct,
you see!' Left smoking, when all the rest is quenched. Considerable
feeling there was, on this point, in the heart of the poor somnambulant
English Nation; much dumb or semi-articulate growling on such a
Peace-Treaty: 'We have arrived nowhere, then, by all this fighting, and
squandering, and perilous stumbling among the chimney-pots? Spain (on
its own showing) owed us 95,000 pounds. Spain's debt to Hanover; yes,
you take care of that; some old sixpenny matter, which nobody ever heard
of before: and of Spain's huge debt to England you drop no hint; of
the 95,000 pounds, clear money, due by Spain; or of one's liberty to
navigate the High Seas, none!' [PROTEST OF ENGLISH MERCHANTS AGAINST,
&c. ("May, 1748") given in ADELUNG, vi. 353-358.] A Peace the reverse of
applauded in England; though the wiser Somnambulants, much more Pitt
and Friends, who are broad awake on these German points, may well be
thankful to see such a War end on any terms."--Well, surely this old
admitted 95,000 pounds should have been paid! And, to a moral certainty,
Robinson and Sandwich must have made demand of it from the Spaniard. But
there is no getting old Debts in, especially from that quarter. "King
Friedrich [let me interrupt, for a moment, with this poor composite
Note] is trying in Spain even now,--ever since 1746, when Termagant's
Husband died, and a new King came,--for payment of old debt: Two old
Debts; quite tolerably just both of them. King Friedrich keeps trying
till 1749, three years in all: and, in the end, gets nothing whatever.
Nothing,--except some Merino Rams in the interim," gift from the new
King of Spain, I can suppose, which proved extremely useful in our Wool
Industries; "and, from the same polite Ferdinand VI., a Porcelain Vase
filled with Spanish Snuff." That was all!--

King Friedrich, let me note farther, is getting decidedly deep into
snuff; holds by SPANIOL (a dry yellow pungency, analogous to Lundy-foot
or Irish-Blackguard, known to snuffy readers); always by Spaniol, we
say; and more especially "the kind used by her Majesty of Spain," the
now Dowager Termagant: [Orders this kind, from his Ambassador in Paris,
"30th September, 1743:" the earliest extant trace of his snuffing habits
(Preuss, i. 409).--NOTE FARTHER (if intere