WAR DECLARED AGAINST SPAIN.

The king on the seventeenth day of December, sent a message to the commons, importing that all his endeavours to procure redress for the injuries done to his subjects by the king of Spain having proved ineffectual, he had found it necessary to declare war against that monarch. When a motion was made for an address, to assure the king they would cheerfully support him in the prosecution of the war, Mr. Shippen and some other members said, they did not see the necessity of involving the nation in a war on account of some grievances of which the merchants complained, as these might be amicably redressed. Mr. Stanhope assured the house that he had presented five-and-twenty memorials to the ministry of Spain on that subject without success. Mr. Methuen accounted for the dilatory proceeds of the Spanish court in commercial affairs, by explaining the great variety of regulations in the several provinces and ports of that kingdom. It was suggested that the ministry paid very little regard to the trade and interest of the nation, inasmuch as it appeared by the answer from the secretary of state to the letter of the marquis de Monteleone, that they would have overlooked the violation of the treaties of commerce, provided Spain had accepted the conditions stipulated in the quadruple alliance; for it was there expressly said, that his majesty the king of Great Britain did not seek to aggrandize himself by any new acquisitions, but was rather inclined to sacrifice something of his own to procure the general quiet and tranquillity of Europe. A member observed, that nobody could tell how far that sacrifice would have extended, but certainly it was a very uncommon stretch of condescension. This sacrifice was said to be the cession of Gibraltar and Port Mahon, which the regent of France had offered to the king of Spain, provided he would accede to the quadruple alliance. Horatio Walpole observed, that the disposition of Sicily in favour of the emperor was an infraction of the treaty of Utrecht; and his brother exclaimed against the injustice of attacking the Spanish fleet before a declaration of war. Notwithstanding all these arguments and objections, the majority agreed to the address; and such another was carried in the upper house without a division. The declaration of war against Spain was published with the usual solemnities; but this war was not a favourite of the people, and therefore did not produce those acclamations that were usual on such occasions.