But the gravity of the note did not lie in its errors or prevarications. The serious part of it was the demand that the English King should punish his subjects for doing what Leeds had declared to Merry only a few days before they had a perfect right to do, namely, to trade and make settlements on the Northwest Coast. The further request that the English Government should give strict orders to prevent such enterprises in the future was virtually demanding that England should forever refrain from exercising this right. Such demands could only be acquiesced in when made upon a weak government by a strong one. English pride could not brook them.
The narrative which was prepared in the foreign office and published by the Government[220] says:
His Majesty’s ministers conceiving the circumstance of seizing a British ship in time of peace to be an offense against the law of nations and an insult to His Majesty, lost no time in taking the only step in their powers.[221]
A fortnight after receiving the Spanish note Leeds replied in a tone equally imperious. After reviewing the facts as given by Campo and referring to the demands of the Spanish Court, he said:
As yet no precise information has been received relative to the events mentioned in your excellency’s letter, but while awaiting such I have His Majesty’s orders to inform your excellency that the act of violence spoken of in your letter as having been committed by M. Martinez, in seizing a British vessel under the circumstances reported, makes it necessary henceforth to suspend all discussion of the pretensions set forth in that letter until a just and adequate satisfaction shall have been made for a proceeding so injurious to Great Britain.
In the first place it is indispensable that the vessel in question shall be restored. To determine the details of the ultimate satisfaction which may be found necessary more ample information must be awaited concerning all the circumstances of the affair.[222]
This haughty tone surprised the Spanish ambassador. In his note to Floridablanca inclosing Leeds’s answer, he said:
The reply which this ministry has finally given to my letter will surprise your excellency as it has surprised me. I refrain from comments on it. At first I thought of going to the Duke of Leeds to express my astonishment, but after considering the matter carefully I have concluded that I ought to refrain, fearing lest in the heat of conversation something might be said which might exasperate. Since it is a formal reply and in writing I could not have obtained its withdrawal. Besides, anything which I may say in reply will be better if it comes from there (Madrid), which is the source.[223]