"fome able hand would anfwer it." From what mouths he took this, I know not. But furely the teftimony of those who defired fome able hand would anfwer what they judged to be mean and despicable, is an odd teftimony for him to quote; fince it could proceed from nothing but a design to ridicule him. Though the Enquiry was not anfwered in form, yet I believe that feveral, perhaps all, the points on which his fyftem leaned, were occafionally examined, and fufficiently refuted by you, Mr. D'Anvers, and by others. If no more was done I take the reafon to have been plainly this. The minifterial air of authority and information affumed in it, made even those, on whom this air did not impofe, judge that it was prudent to wait till time and events fhould open the scene a little more; and as the scene opened, they perceived that the Enquiry was daily anfwered, in the most effectual manner, to their hands; so that the author might have waited all his life, perhaps, for fomething more of this fort, if he had not thought fit to feize an opportunity of defending it, not more worthy his notice, than feveral others before given him; and if my respect for him, and my desire to stand fair in his opinion had not determined me to make him a reply. As to the effect of the Enquiry, which he thinks fo confiderable, that it "awakened multitudes out "of a dull and languid ftate into life and vi gor; and that it was not found to procure flum"bers either to those who liked it, or to those who "difliked it;" I, who was moft certainly one of those who either liked or difliked it, can affirm, with the greatest truth, that if it did not procure me flumbers, it did not keep me awake. Some of the facts advanced in it were ftrange and furprifing; but then they were deftitute of any proof, except the strong affirmations of the author, and collecti ons of circumstances fo extremely trivial, that they became burlesque as foon as they were ferioufly applied. A bare expofition of any real danger from the pretender would have waked multitudes into life and vigor, though the Enquiry had never been written. But I apprehend that fo many pages spent on Wharton's Rambles, Kipperda's chit-chat, hearfays of what one great man writ concerning what another great man faid, three Mufcovite fhips coming to Spain, embarkations which were never made, and armies which were never affembled, could have no other effect than to compofe multitudes into perfect tranquillity, and to confirm the opinion of their fecurity on this head. Any furmifes of an engagement, on the Emperor's part, to affift Spain in the recovery of Gibraltar by force, could provoke no indignation, whatever elfe it might provoke, nor cause any alarm. We knew Gibraltar to be impregnable to the Spaniards, before Ripperda declared it to be fo; and what affiftance the Emperor could give them towards reducing this place, unless he had in his fervice fome of Mr. Waller's winged troops and Pegafean horfe, we were not able to discover. As to the Emperor's real engagement in this article towards Spain, and as to the engagements of Spain towards the Emperor, on the article of trading to the Weft-Indies, we foon knew what they were; and with this knowledge our alarm ceafed. What was faid in the long differtations, about the Oftend company, caufed likewife little or no emotion in us. Our intereft was plainly not that of principals, till the Dutch had the addrefs to make us fo, by their acceffion to the treaty of Hanover; and the conduct of our own court, who beheld, with fo much indifference, the rife and progress of this company, had taught us to be indifferent about it. Thefe confiderations, and many others which I omit, hindered the Enquiry from having the effect, which this gentleman's paternal fondness makes him believe it had. The part, if I may have leave to say so, was over-acted. But ftill I fee no reason that he has to be concerned, because one way or other the end of writing it was anfwered. The Enquiry was the book of a day, like fome little animals on the banks of the river Hypanis, which came to life in the morning, fulfilled all the ends of their creation, and died before night. There is a point, on which the author and defender of the Enquiry values himself and his book very much; I mean the strict regard to truth which he affures us he observed in writing. Now, though I am ready to agree that this author has always a great regard to truth, yet I affirm that I could write a book as big as the Enquiry, filled with nothing but demonftrations of his errors in matters of fact. Too much confidence in the informations he received, too much hafte in compofing, and, above all, that fire which is apt to over-heat the imagination of polemical writers, muft have caufed these errors. impoffible to account any other way, how a gentleman of nice honor, remarkable fincerity, and even exemplary piety, instead of making his propofitions conftantly the refult of the evidence he found, upon a thorough examination, true, fhould, through a whole book, have conftantly fuited his evidence to a certain fet of propofitions; and how facts and dates, as ftubborn things as they are in the hands of other men, fhould grow foft as wax under his touch. It is But it is not my design to enter into a difquifition of this fort. It would fhew ill-nature, which I hope I have not; and it would be now of no ufe whatever. I must however defend myself, as unwilling as I am to offend him; and therefore fince he contradicts what I faid, viz. that " he had been given up in every material article of the Enquiry;" I think myfelf myself obliged to prove it. "How eafy are fuch "words as thefe," fays our author, "but how hard "to support them?" Now I do affure him that these words, as far as they may be thought harfh or impolite, will at no time fall eafily from my tongue or pen; but he will find that it is eafy for me, upon this occafion, to fupport them. I will confine myfelf to the four great points of danger, arifing from the Vienna treaties, and mentioned already. Let us fee whether he has been given up in them or not. According to the Enquiry, we were in danger of lofing, not only our Eaft and Weft-India trade, but many other branches of the British trade, by the privileges fuppofed to be granted to the Emperor's fubjects, and from the enjoyment of which privileges we are debarred. Nay, it was very strongly infinuated that even the ruin of Britain was involved in this point. If this had been the cafe, and if the treaty of Vienna had thus fettled the matter, there would have been occafion for all the outcries which we meet with in the Enquiry, and for ftill more. But our mot knowing merchants gave up this point, as foon as they read and confidered the feveral claufes; and it is notorious, that the contracting powers declared, as foon as they heard of the objection, that their meaning was not to give these privileges to the Imperial fubjects above other nations; and that they would explain the text accordingly, if any ambiguity made it neceffary. But in truth there was little or no ambiguity in the matter, except what the reprefentations of it occafioned; for without entering any deeper into it, let us obferve that the anfwers which this author gives to the objection, which he was forced, from the notoriety of the thing, to make to himself, are evafive and fallacious; for fince the fame liberty of entering the Spanish ports in the Weft-Indies, in cafe of distress by by bad weather, or for refreshment, is granted to us by the treaty of 1670, as is granted to the Imperial fubjects by the treaty of Vienna, does it follow that more is granted to them than to us, because the liberty granted to us hath ceased for many years? If we have not made ufe of the liberty, the fact affirmed is nothing to the purpofe. If we have been denied it, fuch denial is an infraction of the treaty of 1670, and proves that we have had injustice done us by the practice of the Spaniards; but doth not help to prove that we have had any done us by their conceffions to the Emperor, with whom they may keep this article, perhaps, as little as they have done with us, and who is not likely to have the fame means of obliging them to it as we have in our power, whenever we please to employ them. How the eighth article of the treaty of Utrecht came to be quoted, on this occafion, is to me marvellous. That article is made general to all nations; but was particularly directed against the French, who, even at that time, continued to obtain licences to fend fhips to trade in the South Sea, as they had done all the war. But the treaty of Utrecht confirms the treaty of 1670; and the stipulation, that" no licence, or any permiffion at all, fhall at any time be given to the French, or any "other nation whatfoever-to fail, traffic, &c. "to the dominions fubje&t to the crown of Spain "in America," cannot furely be conftrued to deprive us of the right of going into thofe parts, in the cafes allowed by the treaty of 1670. This feems fo clear, that I may pronounce the gentleman given up, on this head, by the most knowing merchants, and by every man who can read and understand what he reads. But I may go farther; for it appears even from the fifth article of the provifional treaty itself, which is faid to fecure us from the dangerous en gagements |