tion.

DEBATE ON THE CONTENTION.

The eyes of the whole kingdom were now turned upon the house of
commons. The two contending parties summoned their whole force for
the approaching dispute; on the day appointed for considering the
convention, four hundred members had taken their seats by eight in the
morning. In a committee of the whole house, certain West India merchants
and planters were heard against the convention; so that this and
the following day were employed in reading papers, and obtaining
information. On the eighth clay of March, Mr. H. Walpole having launched
out in the praise of that agreement, moved for an address of approbation
to his majesty. He was seconded by Mr. Campbell of Pembrokeshire; and
the debate began with extraordinary ardour. He who first distinguished
himself in the lists was sir Thomas Sanderson, at that time treasurer
to the prince of Wales, afterwards earl of Scarborough. All the officers
and adherents of his royal highness had joined the opposition; and he
himself on this occasion sat in the gallery, to hear the debate on
such an important transaction. Sir Thomas Sanderson observed, that
the Spaniards by the convention, instead of giving us reparation, had
obliged us to give them a general release. They had not allowed the word
satisfaction to be so much as once mentioned in the treaty. Even the
Spanish pirate who had cut off the ear of captain Jenkins, [260]
_[See note 2 L at the end of this Vol.]_ and used the most insulting
expression towards the person of the king--an expression which no
British subject could decently repeat--an expression which no man that
had a regard for his sovereign could ever forgive--even this fellow
lived to enjoy the fruits of his rapine, and remained a living testimony
of the cowardly tameness and mean submission of Great Britain; of the
triumphant haughtiness and stubborn pride of Spain. Lord Gage, one of
the most keen spirited and sarcastic orators in the house, stated in
this manner the account of the satisfaction obtained from the court
of Spain by the convention; the losses sustained by the Spanish
depredations amounted to three hundred and forty thousand pounds; the
commissary by a stroke of his pen reduced his demand to two hundred
thousand pounds; then forty-five thousand were struck off for prompt
payment; he next allotted sixty thousand pounds as the remaining part of
a debt pretended to be due to Spain, for the destruction of her fleet
b