Untitled - 24grammata.com

424 RISE OF THE CONTINENTALthe same time, the Spanish and the Austrian wars of succession3both of which became at last blended into one. ^But theyconstituted an epoch in the British continental policy and;it is in this point of view that they must here be considered.The war which broke out with Spain in the year 1739,can only be regardedas a remote consequenceof the continental relations jso far, namely,as the commercial concessions made at the peace of Utrecht, by means of the treatyof Assiento, laid the groundfor it. But considered in another pointof view, it is nevertheless always of extreme importance, as a phenomenon arisingout of the developmentof the British commercial policy,so far as this had always aconsiderable influence on her foreignrelations.It was thefirst war which England carried on under the house of Hanover, or indeed it would not be too much to assert that itwas the first which she carried on at all,barely for the sakeof commerce; and then it must be allowed the voice of thenation imperatively demanded it. And although the treatyof Assiento and some other disputes,as about cutting logwood and others, gave occasion to it, yet tfie cause, properlyspeaking, lay more deep. The spread of British power inthe West Indies, and the flourishingcommerce of her colonial possessions there, could not possiblyconsist with theclaims which Spainstill made to the dominion of these seas ;and the war was from the veryfirst not merely a war for theprotection of the smuggling trade, but for the free navigationof the West Indian seas. The point in dispute could not be,and of course was not, whether England should carry on itssmuggling trade with the Spanish colonies, but the questionwas from the first, whether British ships trading to the WestIndies should in the high seas be subjected to Spanishsearch? The Spaniards had hitherto exercised this right asconsequent on their dominion of the sea, and regardedit asthe only means of restraining the smuggling trade. TheEnglish on the other hand refused to submit to that search.Viewed in this light, the importance of this war with respectto its consequences will not require any further notice.Meanwhile the exertions of the minister were wholly and^sincerely directed to the means of averting the war, if itcould only be effected without trenching too closelyon theinterests of the nation. He accordingly entered into nego-