, and assuring them that "I will
take effectual care, as I have hitherto done, to secure my undoubted
right to Gibraltar and the island of Minorca."

The difficulty was over for the present. The Government contrived to
arrange a new treaty with Spain, the Treaty of Seville, in which France
also was included. This treaty settled for the time the disputes about
English trade with the New World, and the claims of Spain for a
restoration of Gibraltar were, indirectly at least, {298} given up.
Perhaps the whole story is chiefly interesting now as affording an
illustration of the manner in which the Patriots turned everything to
account for their one great purpose of harassing the administration of
Sir Robert Walpole. All the patriotic effusiveness about the undoubted
right of England to Gibraltar was merely well-painted passion. Such
sentiment as exists in the English mind with regard to the possession
of "the Rock" now, did not exist, had not had time to come into
existence, then. Gibraltar was taken in 1704; its possession was
confirmed to England by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Since that time
English Ministers had again and again been considering the expediency
of restoring Gibraltar to the Spaniards. Stanhope had been in favor of
the restoration; Townshend and Carteret had been in favor of it. Some
of the Patriots themselves, before they came to be dubbed Patriots, had
been in favor of it. Only the unreasonable and insolent behavior of
Spain herself stood at one time in the way of the restitution.
Gibraltar was one capture, like many others; captured territory changed
and changed hands with each new arrangement in those days. Minorca,
which was included with Gibraltar in the resolution of the two Houses
of Parliament and the consequent promise of the King, was taken by the
English forces shortly after the capture of Gibraltar, and was settled
upon England by the same Treaty of Utrecht. Yet, as we all know, it
was given up by England at the peace of Amiens, and no tears of grief
were shed by any English eyes. But the discovery that the late King
had at one time been willing to restore Gibraltar to Spain for a
consideration came in most opportunely for the Patriots. To most of
them it was, of course, no discovery at all. They had always known of
the intention, and some of them had approved of it. None the less
shrill were their cries of surprise; none the less vociferous their
shouts of patriotic anger.