tion or cause of complaint, insulted the honour and
invaded the rights of his crown. As regarded the hostility of Spain, he
repeated, that no blame could be attached to him. He then complimented
the high national feeling of the people by observing, that he considered
it as a happy omen of the success of his arms that the increase of
difficulties served only to augment the courage and constancy of the
nation. He concluded by remarking, that it was impossible to speak of
the continuance of the rebellion in North America without concern, and
that he had given such unquestionable proofs of his disposition to put
an end to those troubles, which led him to hope that the designs of the
enemies of Great Britain could not long prevail against the interests of
the colonists.

THE CAUSES OF THE RUPTURE WITH SPAIN.

Although the opposition were correct in their conjectures as to a final
war with Spain, ministers were by no means so blind as represented by
them. It had, indeed, required all the family influence of the greater
branch of the House of Bourbon, and all the activity and skill of French
negotiators to lead Charles III. into this new and unprovoked contest.
The Spanish monarch remembered how much he had suffered from his last
short war with England; he was alarmed also for the tranquillity of his
own colonies, if encouraged by the example of successful rebellion; and
he moreover shrunk from the unkingly action of fomenting insurrection
and allying himself with rebels. These were barriers which the King of
France and his negotiators had to break down before they could procure
the Spanish monarch's aid in their designs. And in this they encountered
a great difficulty. Charles III. assured Lord Grantham, that he knew
nothing of the treaty between France and America until it was concluded;
and his prime-minister, Count Florida Blanca, declared that he
considered the independence of America as no less injurious to Spain
than to Great Britain. Many overtures, he afterwards confessed, had been
made, but his monarch had uniformly rejected the instances of France
to acknowledge the independence of the United States. Subsequently,
however, Charles III. was led to believe that revolution might
flourish in North America without reaching the south; that the final
hour of the British supremacy at sea, and consequently of the British
empire was at hand; and that the united House of Bourborn would then
have little else to do than t