whatsoever, which they enjoyed before the last war, by virtue of cedulas or Royal Ordinances, and by the Articles of the Treaty of Peace and Commerce made at Madrid in 1667; and the said subjects shall be treated in Spain in the same manner as the most favoured nation; and consequently no nation shall pay less duties upon wool and other merchandizes which they shall bring into or carry out of Spain, by land, than the said subjects shall pay upon the same merchandizes which they shall bring in or carry out by sea. And all the rights, privileges, franchises, exemptions, and immunities, which shall be granted or permitted to any nation whatever, shall also be granted and permitted to the said subjects; and His Britannic Majesty consents that the same be granted and permitted to the subjects of Spain in His Britannic Majesty's kingdoms." In the Treaty which put an end to the American war, signed at Versailles in the month of September, 1783, all those concluded antecedently were renewed and confirmed in the best form, being quoted to that effect in the IInd Article; and far from desiring to narrow the meaning of their stipulations in what has reference to traffic and commerce, it is palpably manifest that the spirit which guided both Governments respecting a point so important for drawing closer the bonds of their amity was, on the contrary, very ample and liberal. "Immediately after the exchange of the Ratifications (it was said. in the IXth Article) the 2 High Contracting Parties shall name Commissioners to treat concerning new arrangements of commerce between the 2 nations, on the basis of reciprocity and mutual convenience." As a proof and testimony that this was the spirit which at that period animated both Governments, it will not appear irrelevant to quote the declaration which accompanied the said Treaty; a declaration which proves the sound views cherished by both Governments, desirous not only to prevent any alteration of the Treaties in force to the detriment of the mercantile relations between the 2 Powers, but also to improve and render them closer according to the principles of reciprocity and mutual convenience; so far were those Governments from desiring that the said Treaties should bear the restricted and petty meaning which is now sought to be affixed to them, just at the period when the principles of freedom in matters of navigation and commerce are the most proclaimed. The said document stated as follows: "Declaration. The new state in which commerce may perhaps be found in all parts of the world, will demand revisions and explanations of subsisting Treaties; but an entire abrogation of those Treaties, whenever it might take place, would throw commerce into such confusion, as would be of infinite prejudice to it. "In some of the Treaties of this sort, there are not only Articles which relate merely to commerce, but many others which ensure reciprocally to the respective subjects, privileges, facilities for conducting their affairs, personal protections, and other advantages which are not and which ought not to be of a changeable nature, like details relating merely to the value of goods and merchandize, which vary according to circumstances. "When therefore the state of the trade between the 2 nations shall be treated upon, it is requisite to be understood that the alterations which may be made in the subsisting Treaties are to extend only to arrangements merely commercial, and that the privileges and advantages, mutual and particular, are not only to be preserved on each side, but even to be augmented if possible. "In this view His Majesty has consented to the appointment of Commissioners on each side, who shall treat solely upon this object. "Counter-Declaration. The Catholic King, in proposing new arrangements of commerce, has had no other design than to remedy, by the rules of reciprocity and mutual convenience, whatever may be defective in preceding Treaties of Commerce. The King of Great Britain may judge from thence that the intention of His Catholic Majesty is not in any manner to cancel all the stipulations contained in the above-mentioned Treaties. He declares, on the contrary, from henceforth, that he is disposed to maintain all the privileges, facilities, and advantages expressed in the old Treaties, as far as they shall be reciprocal or compensated by equivalent advantages. It is to attain this end, desired on each side, that Commissioners are to be named to treat upon the state of trade between the 2 nations, and that a considerable space of time is to be allowed for completing their work. Ilis Catholic Majesty hopes that this object will be pursued with the same good faith, and with the same spirit of conciliation, which have presided over the discussion of all the other points included in the Definitive Treaty; and His said Majesty is equally confident that the respective Commissioners will employ the utmost diligence for the completion of this important work." The grave events which occurred soon after that epoch did not permit the execution of the design of drawing closer the mercantile relations between the 2 States by means of a new Convention, but in all the Treaties concluded afterwards the same spirit and tendency are discoverable. Even in the midst of the cruel struggle sustained by both Powers against Bonaparte, and when what was most urgent was the settling of the bases of the intimate alliance which already existed in point of fact, by reason of the common interests being threatened, they did not forget to refer to the object already mentioned. To the Treaty concluded in London in the beginning of 1809,* an Article was added, which was to the following effect: * Vol. I. Page 667. "The present circumstances not admitting of the regular negotiation of a Treaty of Commerce between the 2 countries, with all the care and consideration due to so important a subject, the High Contracting Parties mutually engage to proceed to such negotiation as soon as it shall be practicable so to do, affording, in the meantime, mutual facilities to the commerce of the subjects of each other, by temporary regulations founded on principles of reciprocal utility." When the complete victory of the Allied arms allowed both nations to conclude a Treaty of Peace, signed at Madrid the 5th July, 1814, so far from contemplating a restriction of the commerce of both Powers, a desire was on the contrary, manifested to protect and exterd it, as is expressly set forth in the IIIrd Article. The High Contracting Parties, not satisfied even with this, subjoined, in the month of August of the same year, several additional Articles, the first of which was conceived in these terms:-"It is agreed that during the negotiation of a new Treaty of Commerce, Great Britain shall be admitted to trade with Spain on the same conditions that existed prior to the year 1796. All the Commercial Treaties which subsisted at that time between the 2 nations are hereby ratified and confirmed." It is apparent, therefore, from this brief review, that in none of the Treaties which fixed the mercantile relations between the 2 kingdoms, is any allusion made to the restriction maintained by Her Britannic Majesty's Minister for Foreign Affairs, when he contends that the favour conceded mutually by both Powers of being treated as the most privileged nation, should be understood merely of the subjects, and not of the merchandize, of either realm. And if so novel an interpretation does not in any way appear conformable to the tenour and spirit of Treaties, neither is that interpretation consistent with the conduct observed by Her Britannic Majesty's Government in the repeated representations which it has addressed to the Government of Her Catholic Majesty, at different periods and for different objects. It would be easy to produce a long list of the representations which uniformly invoke the principle sanctioned by the Conventions subsisting between the 2 Powers, and which gives them reciprocally the right of being treated as the most favoured nation. England has in such cases been far from limiting the application of this principle to the subjects of that kingdom, as she now would apply it to those of Spain; and so far from keeping within this limit, she has maintained that the general rule before mentioned ought to be applied to their produce, their merchandize, their ships, and to whatever has any the least reference to their navigation and commerce, So many are the cases of this description which might be brought forward, that the Undersigned is only embarrassed by the difficulty of choice, and he therefore must content himself with indicating those which chance has placed most within his reach. In 1838, when it only was announced that a law was about to be promulgated forbidding foreign ships to carry on the coasting trade in Spain, Her Britannic Majesty's Ministers at Madrid presented a variety of complaints relative to this and other points; and in one of them, dated the 22nd February of that year, he said, "I demanded in both notes, as I did likewise on other occasions (which demand I now formally repeat), the right of Great Britain to be treated as the most favoured nation, and that the privileges granted in favour of the commerce of France should also be conceded in the same manner, and to the same extent, to the trade of Great Britain." The same Minister expressed himself almost in the same terms in his note of 1st of February of the same year, requiring, with regard to the transit trade, the faithful observance of Article XI of the Treaty of Madrid of 1667, "repeated and confirmed by various subsequent Treaties." Her Britannic Majesty's Minister, on claiming for the steamvessels of his nation to be allowed to convey passengers, founded this right on the above principle, saying in his note to the Spanish Minister, "your Excellency is fully aware that the Treaties existing between Great Britain and France, give to each of the 2 countries a mutual right of being treated as the most favoured nation. On the strength of this stipulation, France is continually claiming from the Spanish Government the conditions laid down in the Treaties between Great Britain and Spain; the same holds good in the case of England; so that the laws and usages prevailing with regard to the properties and subjects of Great Britain and France, consist in a combination of the stipulations contained in the Treaties between Great Britain and Spain, and in those existing between Spain and France." This mode of considering the mercantile relations subsisting between Spain and England, in accordance with the Treaties now in force, shuts the door against the meaning which it is at present sought to attach to them; for it is impossible to comprehend that the Treaties subsisting between the 2 Powers and France should be understood merely in respect to subjects, and not in respect to produce. To the latter and not to the subjects, reference was made by Her Britannic Majesty's Minister, when on the 20th April, 1837, he applied for the abolition of exceptional duties laid in the ports of Spain on goods proceeding from Gibraltar. The British Envoy, after enlarging on this demand, concluded thus: "I have the honour to submit to your Excellency the above observations, being convinced that Her Catholic Majesty's Government, on weighing the merits of this case, will not any longer allow undue privileges to be conceded to a foreign commerce, which is not entitled to any preference over that of Great Britain; privileges prejudicial to the bona fide trade of Great Britain, and whose continuance is an infraction of the Treaties stipulating that England shall be placed on the footing of the most favoured nations." To this demand of the British Cabinet, Her Catholic Majesty replied by an order to suspend the fulfilment of the Royal Ordinance which had imposed differential duties on vessels proceeding from Gibraltar, in the same manner as had been determined with regard to goods proceeding from some of the ports of France, "in order that thus" (replied the Spanish Government to the Representative of His Britannic Majesty)" effect may be given to the Treaties existing with England, who, according thereto, has a right to be treated in Spain as the most favoured nations." The same principle was appealed to by the British Cabinet, when, having heard that a Commercial Treaty had been concluded between Spain and Belgium, in consequence of which the duties on Belgian linens would be lowered, it claimed a similar reduction of duties on English linens; and the most remarkable circumstance of this occurrence, of which a minute appears in the documents presented to Parliament by the British Ministry, is, that among them is inserted the approbation given by Lord Aberdeen to the note addressed on this subject by Her Britannic Majesty's Minister to the Spanish Government. As the Treaty between Spain and Belgium was not ratified at that time, nor has been ratified up to this day, there has been no occasion to come to any resolution respecting the demand of the British Government; still, however, there remains the fact that the latter required a reduction of duties on a certain product of its industry, without alleging any other title than that the very same was on the eve of being effected with regard to the manufactures of another country, which, in just reciprocity, offered considerable reductions on some Spanish productions. What would the Government of Her Britannic Majesty have said, if the Spanish Government had answered that demand by giving to the Treaties the same interpretation that Lord Aberdeen would give to them at the present moment? The endeavour of the English Government to have its commerce and merchant marine treated on the footing of the most favoured nations has shown itself also very singularly on another subject; namely, it has demanded on various occasions that there should not |