manner for the renewal of that treaty by a declaration being given by the court of Spain, that it doth still exist in its full force and efficacy; what M. Carvajal says, of the little occasion we have of a new declaration of it, when we have the actual enjoyment of the treaty, not being satisfactory to his Majesty, who is desirous of putting the commerce of his subjects on a firm and stable foundation, and not subject to the precarious humours of the Spanish ministry. I must likewise observe to you, that this idea of M. Carvajal, of the admitting this nation to the benefit of that treaty by connivance, without allowing the actual existence of it, as well as the two expedients proposed by M. Ensenada, either the one for secret orders to be sent to the officers of the customs not to demand higher duties of the English than the old ones, or the other for an account of the exceedings to be kept at the custom house in order to their being returned to the English merchant, these several expedients, I say, seem not only frivolous and childish in themselves, but likewise liable to the same objections the Spanish ministers make to the actual renewal of the treaty of 1715, viz. that the French and other nations would avail themselves of it. How is it to be supposed that the advantages proposed by these ministers to be granted to the English nation by any of these expedients, would not be equally claimed by the French and all other nations, who have a right to be treated as gens amicissima? As you very justly observe that the case men 1749. 1749. tioned in my dispatch of the 11th of May last doth not yet exist, his Majesty doth entirely approve of your reasoning on that subject, and would have till you receive farther orders, act upon the same principles you have hitherto proceeded on. you, I have this morning seen, and have had a good deal of conversation with, Messrs. Burrell* and Bristow †, and I find them upon the whole to be very well inclined. They seem very desirous of knowing whether you have received the accounts they sent you relating to the demands of the South Sea Company, and likewise whether any conversation has passed between you and the Spanish ministers in relation to their affairs. I hope to be able to send you very shortly some hints that we are endeavouring to stretch out here in relation to the liquidating the accounts and settling the disputes between that company and the court of Madrid; however, I find those gentlemen could have wished some proposal had been drawn out of the Spanish minister and sent over hither, in order to have formed a judgment what compensation the Spanish ministry would have given for the four years of non-jouissance, and what proposals they would have made for the payment of the vast debt undoubtedly due to the company. I am, &c. &c. BEDFORD. * Peter Burrell, Esq., SubGovernor. † John Bristow, Esq., Deputy-Governor. P. S.-I yesterday received and laid before his Majesty your letter of the 26 June and I send your letters of revocation and re-credentials to the King and Queen of Portugal, and copies of your recredentials for your own information. 1749. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TO THE DUKE OF Windsor Great Lodge, August 2. 1749. My Lord Duke of Bedford, I received yours enclosing one from Lord Albemarle last night, and as I shall not be in town this week, I send it you that you may see how much stress he lays on the goodness of the intelligence. On my part, I bear it witness, for I never knew it fail in the least trifle, and have had very material and early notices from it. How far the price may agree with our present saving schemes I don't know; but good intelligence ought not to be lightly thrown away. I remain, Your ever affectionate friend, WILLIAM. 1749. THE DUKE OF BEDFORD TO THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE.* Whitehall, August 3. 1749. My Lord, I have duly laid your Excellency's several 24 July, as also a letter from Mr. dispatches of the 4 Aug. Yorke of the same date, relative to the affairs about which your Lordship had directed him to speak to M. de Puisieux, before the King, who has been pleased to direct me to acquaint your Excellency that he doth entirely approve of the conduct you held in your audience of their most Christian Majesties, and in your visits and conversation to the Ministers. Your not giving way to Cardinal Tencin's pretension of refusing to give your Excellency the right hand in his own house, and to return your visit, has entirely met with his Majesty's approbation; and I cannot help taking notice in this place that the supercherie intended by him to be put on your Excellency, after he had agreed to receive your visit in the same manner the other ministers did, was, by your prudence in sending the sub-introductor of ambassadors into the Cardinal's house before you, prevented, and the point in dispute between the Cardinal and the Ambassador settled for the future. William Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albemarle, Ambassador at Paris, Knight of the Garter, Groom of the Stole, Governor of Virginia, Colonel of a regiment of Guards. Mr. Yorke having transmitted to me an account of all that passed between him and the Marquis de Puisieux and M. Rouille in relation to the points concerning the treaty of commerce of 1713 and the commissaries to be appointed for settling the limits in America, and the points in dispute about prizes taken since hostilities should have ceased, and which, by your Excellency's order, he was directed to speak to the French ministers about, I herewith send you his Majesty's instructions for your conduct in the reply it will be necessary to make to M. Rouille's objections, and in support of our right to all the unconditional articles of the treaty of commerce of 1713. The King doth, as well in this as in all other matters upon which you may hereafter receive instructions from me, leave it entirely to your Excellency's discretion to determine what part you shall think proper to take immediately upon yourself, and what part you shall choose to give Mr. Yorke directions upon. The Marquis de Puisieux's acknowledging the treaty of commerce of 1713 to be virtually renewed in all its articles which are not conditional, by the last treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, is a clear proof that, notwithstanding all that was asserted here by M. Durand of the nullity of that treaty, his Majesty was justly founded in the demand he has made in the behalf of his trading subjects for the entire abolition of the Droit de Fret upon British shipping; but I must own to your Excellency that I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile this 1749. |