the
regulation of the limits of Carolina and Florida was referred to the
determination of plenipotentiaries; so that the colony of Georgia, which
undoubtedly belonged to the crown of Great Britain, was left in dispute,
while the settlers remained in the most precarious and dangerous
situation. It was moved that the merchants should be heard by their
counsel; but the proposal was strenuously opposed by the ministry, and
rejected upon a division.

This famous convention, concluded at the Pardo on the fourteenth day of
January, imported, that within six weeks to be reckoned from the day on
which the ratifications were exchanged, two ministers plenipotentiaries
should meet at Madrid, to confer, and finally regulate the respective
pretentions of the two crowns, with relation to the trade and navigation
in America and Europe, and to the limits of Florida and Carolina, as
well as concerning other points which remained likewise to be adjusted,
according to the former treaties subsisting between the two nations:
that the plenipotentiaries should finish their conferences within the
space of eight months: that in the meantime no progress should be made
in the fortifications of Florida and Carolina: that his catholic majesty
should pay to the king of Great Britain, the sum of ninety-five thousand
pounds, for a balance due to the crown and subjects of Great Britain,
after deduction made of the demands of the crown and subjects of Spain:
that this sum should be employed for the satisfaction, discharge, and
payment of the demands of the British subjects upon the crown of Spain:
that this reciprocal discharge, however, should not extend or relate
to the accounts and differences which subsisted and were to bo settled
between the crown of Spain and the assiento company, nor to any
particular or private contracts that might subsist between either of
the two crowns, or their ministers, with the subjects of the other;
or between the subjects of each nation respectively: that his catholic
majesty should cause the sum of ninety-five thousand pounds to be paid
at London within four mouths, to be reckoned from the day on which the
ratifications were exchanged. Such was the substance of that convention,
which alarmed and provoked the merchants and traders of Great Britain,
excited the indignation of all those who retained any regard for the
honour of their country, and raised a general cry against the minister
who stood at the helm of administra