e
displeasure of the Commons, who, as the real rulers of the state, were
bound to keep their servants in order. The Lords justices read this
outrageous note with indignation, and sent it with all speed to Loo.
Thence they received, with equal speed, directions to send Canales
out of the country. Our ambassador was at the same time recalled from
Madrid; and all diplomatic intercourse between England and Spain was
suspended.

It is probable that Canales would have expressed himself in a less
unbecoming manner, had there not already existed a most unfortunate
quarrel between Spain and William, a quarrel in which William was
perfectly blameless, but in which the unanimous feeling of the English
Parliament and of the English nation was on the side of Spain.

It is necessary to go back some years for the purpose of tracing the
origin and progress of this quarrel. Few portions of our history are
more interesting or instructive; but few have been more obscured and
distorted by passion and prejudice. The story is an exciting one; and it
has generally been told by writers whose judgment had been perverted by
strong national partiality. Their invectives and lamentations have still
to be temperately examined; and it may well be doubted whether, even
now, after the lapse of more than a century and a half, feelings hardly
compatible with temperate examination will not be stirred up in many
minds by the name of Darien. In truth that name is associated with
calamities so cruel that the recollection of them may not unnaturally
disturb the equipoise even of a fair and sedate mind.

The man who brought these calamities on his country was not a mere
visionary or a mere swindler. He was that William Paterson whose name is
honourably associated with the auspicious commencement of a new era in
English commerce and in English finance. His plan of a national bank,
having been examined and approved by the most eminent statesmen who sate
in the Parliament house at Westminster and by the most eminent merchants
who walked the Exchange of London, had been carried into execution with
signal success. He thought, and perhaps thought with reason, that his
services had been ill requited. He was, indeed, one of the original
Directors of the great corporation which owed its existence to him; but
he was not reelected. It may easily be believed that his colleagues,
citizens of ample fortune and of long experience in the practical part
of trade, aldermen,