TREATY WITH SPAIN.

Perhaps the precarious footing on which the peace stood between Great Britain and France at this juncture, and the critical situation of affairs in Germany, determined the ministry of England to compromise all differences with Spain, upon such terms as at any other time they would hardly have embraced. In order to discuss those points between the two nations, which had not been settled by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, conferences were also begun at Madrid, and carried on by Mr. Keene, plenipotentiary to his Britannic majesty, and don Joseph de Carvajal and Lancastro, the Spanish king’s minister. At length a treaty was concluded on these conditions—the king of Spain engaged to pay, in three months, to the South-sea company of England, one hundred thousand pounds sterling, as an indemnification for all claims upon his crown, by virtue of the assiento. In other respects, the trade and navigation of the English to the ports of Spain were regulated by former treaties. It was stipulated, that they should pay no other duties than those that were exacted of them in the reign of Charles II. of Spain; that they should be treated on the footing of the most favoured nations; and continue to enjoy the privilege of taking salt at the island of Tortuga. But there was no article restricting the Spanish guarda costas from searching the British vessels on the high seas; although, as we have already observed, this insolent prerogative, assumed without right, and exercised without humanity, was in effect the original and sole cause of the late rupture, which had been attended with such enormous expense to the nation. It must be owned, however, that his catholic majesty was at this period extremely well disposed to live upon good terms with Great Britain. He was resolved to indulge his people with the blessings of peace, to propagate a spirit of industry throughout his dominions, and in particular to encourage commerce, which he foresaw would prove a much more certain and inexhaustible source of wealth, power, and influence, than all the treasures he could drain from the mines of Mexico and Peru. His resolutions on this interesting subject were chiefly directed by don Ricardo Wall, who now acted as his minister at London; a gentleman of Irish extract, who had distinguished himself in the field as well as in the cabinet, and possessed the joint qualifications of a general and a statesman. He had, by virtue of a passport, come over privately to England before the peace, in order to pave the way for the treaty, by a secret negotiation with the English ministers; but immediately after the peace was proclaimed, he appeared in the character of ambassador. He was possessed of the most insinuating address, shrewd, penetrating, and inquisitive. While he resided in London, he spared no pains in learning the nature of those manufactures, and that commerce, by which Great Britain had been so remarkably aggrandized; and on his return to Spain, where in a little time he was placed at the helm of affairs, he turned the knowledge he had thus acquired to the advantage of his country. He not only promoted the useful arts, within the kingdom of Spain, but demonstrated the infinite advantage that would accrue from an active trade, which the Spaniards had for many-ages neglected; and in a few years their ships were seen to swarm in all the commercial ports of Europe. Of other foreign events which distinguished this summer, the most remarkable was the death of John, king of Portugal, who perfectly understood, and steadily pursued, the true interests of his country, and in whom many princely qualities were debased by a cruel spirit of bigotry and superstition. He was succeeded by his eldest son Joseph, who, if he has fallen short of his father in some respects, cannot be justly charged with having inherited this paternal weakness.