Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

No. XVIII.

Despatch from B. Frere, Esq. to Lord Harrowby dated Escurial, Oct. 27, 1804.

My Lord,

Your Lordship's despatches, No. 1 & 2, were delivered to me by the messenger, Smith, on the night of the 18th, in consequence of which I lost no time in coming down to the Escurial, where the court are resident at present; and having demanded an audience of M. Cevallos, which he gave me on the 21st, I told him that I believed he would find, by his letters from England, that the sensation which the late unexpected armament at Ferrol had caused there, had been by no means over-rated in the note which I had addressed to him upon the subject, some weeks ago; that I was now charged to declare to him formally his majesty's surprize and concern at such a measure having been adopted, without any previous communication to him, and unaccompanied by any explanations of its object; and to require the immediate recall of all orders which might have been given at Ferrol or elsewhere, for increasing their naval force, or for altering its position; and that it should be reduced to the state in which it was at the beginning of the war.-M. Cevallos said, that he found that there had been a great deal of misrepresentation and exaggeration upon the subject of this armament, which he affected to treat very lightly. He said, that the expedition consisted of a few ships, which were already armed at the time, whose destination I must be well acquainted with; and that the project was now given up, and that he wished to infer, that there was therefore no ground of complaint for what had passed. I replied, that I knew no more of the destination of this expedition, than what I had learnt from publick report, which was, that it was meant to convey troops to quell an insurrection in Biscay; but that it had appeared to me so incredible that ships of war should be armed to carry forces to a province which had no ports to receive them, which was already in possession of their troops, and which was so situated, that the march by land might be performed in a much shorter time than was necessary for preparing for and making the voyage, that I had not ventured to write this report home to my government.--M. Cevallos, however, assured me, that this was the design, and, extravagant as it was, the march by land, into Biscay, of the troops before destined for the embarkation, seems to confirm his assurance.-I observed, that whatever might have been the object of this armament, it was equally a breach of the convention which Spain had entered into with England; and as M. Cevallos maintained that the engagement had been only contracted for not arming against Great Britain, I referred it to my brother's note of the 18th February, in which the cessation of all armaments is demanded in the clearest terms.--I told him at the same time that if he was inclined to dispute this point, I must revert to the instructions upon which the demand was framed, and which were to the full as positive as those which I had now received.--He protested against the extravagance of such a pretension, which he said would reduce them to the lowest state of humiliation, if Spain could not arm to repel the insults of a foreign enemy, or to quell her own rebellious subjects. I repeated the assurance of his majesty's disposition to make every possible concession in favour of Spain; but that this was an engagement, which the security of his kingdom called for, and that Spain might rely upon its being pursued no further than that object required. Finding that it was needless to attempt drawing any satisfactory assurance from M. Cevallos, in conversation, I told him that my instructions related likewise to some other important points; that if he pleased I would read them over to him, after which, if he thought it necessary, I would deliver him in writing a summary of their contents. In treating of the subject of the money furnished to France, he affected much surprize at its being considered merely as a temporary measure, and asked from whence my court could have got that idea, of which he himself disclaimed any share. I told him that I knew my brother had repeatedly received similar assurances at the very time when the treaty was negotiating, from a person high in authority, whose assurances were then esteemed authentick, and that as such he had transmitted them to his government. M. Cevallos repeated that they had no such views; that the treaty was concluded for the whole of the present war: that it contained no article whatever hostile to Great Britain; and as to the amount of the subsidies, he could only repeat what he had already said, and what M. Anduaga had stated to your lordship, that they are calculated with a reference to the expense of furnishing the succours stipulated by treaty. This assurance, he said, he trusted I should think sufficient, and that England would so far do justice to the good faith of the Spanish cabinet as to pronounce herself satisfied with such a declaration. I observed, to him, that my government was already in possession of thus much information upon the subject, when my present instructions were forwarded to me, and therefore that I must expect a more explicit answer, or comply with the orders to demand my passports; that in the terms in which he stated it, the amount of succour stipulated was without any limit, since the treaty provides that in case of necessity, the auxiliary power is liable to be called upon to assist her ally with all her forces; in which situation there would be no bounds to the sums which Spain might furnish to the enemy under the denomination of an equivalent for these succours. I did not, however, succeed in obtaining any further explanation upon the subject; and there was in M. Cevallos's manner a more decided determination not to give way upon this point, and more disposition to ill humour at being pressed upon it, than upon that of the total cessation of all armaments in the ports. He took no other notice of the orders given to admiral Cochrane to shut the ports of Ferrol to their ships of war, than by asking me to read that paragraph a second time; and when I had finished the despatch, he said, that Spain would continue to act with the same good faith which she had always hitherto done; that England ought to be perfectly at ease upon the subject of the armament, which never had been of any consequence, and was now laid aside; that upon the question of the subsidies, she had all the satisfaction that she could reasonably require; that it was time that she herself should give some assurances of her own dispositions without which a neutrality restless and disturbed as that which Spain now possesses, would prove as prejudicial to the country as war itself. I answered, that the dispositions of my government towards Spain, were not less friendly than they had always been, and that it was to the conduct of Spain herself that he must attribute the unsettled state of the connexion between the two countries; nor could it be otherwise, as long as she maintained this reserve upon a point which affects so essentially the interests of Great Britain as that of her pecuniary engagements with France; and I left him by saying that I hoped that upon consideration he would see it in the same light, and that I should receive a more satisfactory answer to the note which I should transmit to him, than I had been able to obtain from the conference. Your lordship will observe an interval of some days between this conference and the date of my note, during which I have been confined by a return of indisposition which disabled me from writing. I have the honour to be, &c.

B. FRERE.

(Translation of the Enclosure refered to in No. 18.)

Escurial, 26th October, 1804.

SIR,

In consequence of the desire your excellency has expressed to me, I have the honour to transmit to you in writing the substance of the representations which I have been directed by my government to make to you. It is with equal surprize and concern that his Britannick majesty received the account of the naval preparations which have been carrying on in the ports of Spain, having on his part omitted nothing, from the very commencement of hostilities with France, which could contribute to remove from Spain those calamities of a war, in which, owing to her treaties, she was in fact placed in the number of her enemies. Nothing, indeed, could have induced his majesty to persevere in this system of moderation, except the same benevolent motive, supported by a disposition to give credit to the assurances of the Spanish government, that the sums furnished to France were only paid under the idea of gaining time, until circumstances would enable her to follow a system more congenial to her wishes and her interests.--His Majesty has repeatedly requested a communication of the engagements concluded with France; but the only answer has uniformly been a vague assurance, that, whatever might be the amount of the sums to be paid by Spain, they were calculated according to the estimate of what the succours, naval and military, stipulated by treaty would amount to. But his majesty has never been furnished with any means of judging, whether these payments are in fact only a fair equivalent for those succours, or whether they so far exceed it, as to render it necessary to consider Spain a principal in the war.--In this state of uncertainty, his majesty has been compelled expressly to reserve to himself the full right to regulate his conduct towards Spain, according to the appearance of circumstances at the moment. But he has ever declared, unequivocally, that the discontinuance of all naval preparations on the part of that power was an indispensable condition of the continuance of his moderation. such a declaration having been made, it would be difficult to account for a naval armament on the part of Spain, in such a manner as to reconcile it with her pretended system of neutrality; and it becomes impossible to consider the present armament which was unaccompanied by any explanation, in any other light than as a measure decidedly hostile, and which calls upon his majesty, to take without delay, every step which prudence may dictate; and more especially to give orders to his admiral off Ferrol, to prevent any Spanish ship of war from entering or leaving that port. His majesty's uniform conduct towards Spain has abundantly proved his ardent desire to carry his moderation to the utmost extent, which a due regard for the interests and security of his people will permit. but his majesty cannot depart from the declarations which he has made, nor permit that Spain shall enjoy all the advantages of neutrality, whilst she wages a two fold war against him, first, by furnishing to his enemies unlimited pecuniary succours; and secondly, by compelling him to divert a part of his naval force from acting against the enemy, in order to watch the armaments which are preparing in ports pretending to be neutral. I have in consequence received orders from his majesty to require of the Spanish government the immediate recall of all the orders which have been given at Ferrol, at Cadiz, or at Carthagena, as well for the equipment of ships, as for sending reinforcements from one to the other of those ports, and not only that such preparations be stopped, but that the naval armaments in all the ports of Spain shall be put precisely on the same footing as before the commencement of hostilities between England and France. I flatter myself, that I shall not be under the necessity of announcing to your excellency, more formally than I have hitherto done, what must be the inevitable consequences of a refusal of this demand. If it is fully complied with, I can answer for the intentions of his majesty to send to Madrid a minister authorised to discuss in an amicable manner, every other subject of dispute; but still this discussion cannot take place unless Spain be prepared to give a distinct explanation of her engagements with France, and of the system which she proposes to adopt, according to which his majesty may be enabled to judge of the nature of the relations which should subsist between him and his Catholic majesty. Your excellency may conceive the impatience with which I shall expect your answer, and some days having already elapsed since I had the honour to converse with you on the subject of this note, I hope that your decision has been already taken, and that I may flatter myself in some degree to have contributed towards the extinction of the daily alarms which trouble the good understanding between the two countries, and which are the necessary consequences of the obstinacy of Spain in refusing to give that satisfaction so justly due to the conduct of his Britannick majesty.

(Signed)
B. FRERE.

(To be continued.)