puted the right of English traders to cut logwood in the bay of
Campeachy, and gather salt in the island of Tortugas; though that right
was acknowledged by implication in all the treaties which had been
lately concluded between the two nations. The captains of their armed
vessels, known by the name of guarda-costas, had made a practice of
boarding and plundering British ships, on pretence of searching for
contraband commodities, on which occasions they had behaved with the
utmost insolence, cruelty, and rapine. Some of their ships of war had
actually attacked a fleet of English merchant ships at the island of
Tortugas, as if they had been at open enmity with England. They had
seized and detained a great number of British vessels, imprisoned their
crews, and confiscated their cargoes, in violation of treaties, in
defiance of common justice and humanity. Repeated memorials were
presented to the court of Spain, by the British ambassador at Madrid. He
was amused with evasive answers, vague promises of inquiry, and cedulas
of instructions sent to the Spanish governors in America, to which
they paid no sort of regard. Not but that the Spaniards had reason
to complain in their turn, of the illicit commerce which the English
traders from Jamaica and other islands, carried on with their subjects
on the continent of South America; though this could not justify the
depredations and cruelties which the commanders of the guarda-costas had
committed, without provocation or pretence.

MOTIVES FOR AVOIDING A WAR.

The merchants of England loudly complained of these outrages; the nation
was fired with resentment, and cried for vengeance; but the minister
appeared cold, phlegmatic, and timorous. He knew that a war would
involve him in such difficulties as must of necessity endanger his
administration. The treasure which he now employed for domestic
purposes, must in that case be expended in military armaments; the
wheels of that machine on which he had raised his influence would no
longer move; the opposition would of consequence gain ground, and the
imposition of fresh taxes, necessary for the maintenance of the war,
would fill up the measure of popular resentment against his person and
ministry. Moved by these considerations, he industriously endeavoured
to avoid a rupture, and to obtain some sort of satisfaction by dint of
memorials and negotiations, in which he betrayed his own fears to such a
degree, as animated the Spaniards