ully been made prizes, that she was shut out from
the Newfoundland fishery, and that British settlements had been made on
the bay of Honduras. Charles III, of Spain had a strong leaning towards
a French alliance; he was much influenced by the family tie between
himself and the other Bourbon powers, and he considered that the
destruction of the French navy by Great Britain deprived Spain of a
guarantee for the safety of her possessions in the western hemisphere.
He believed that by identifying the interests of Spain with those of
France, he would gain a satisfactory settlement of his own claims and
also better terms for France than she could otherwise obtain. As early
as September, 1760, the Count de Fuentes, the Spanish minister in
London, presented to Pitt a memorial on the Newfoundland fishery, in
which it was stated that a copy had been communicated to the court of
France. Indignant at the implied threat, Pitt replied that he was at a
loss to understand the meaning of such a communication, and that France
had nothing to do with the question.[35] A month later Dutens, secretary
to the British embassy at Turin, sent him information which proved that
the King of Spain would not long remain a passive spectator of the
war.[36] Pitt was thus fully aware of the necessity for watchfulness as
to the relations between France and Spain; the correspondence between
Fuentes and the Marquis Grimaldi, the Spanish minister at Paris, was
regularly intercepted and its contents communicated by Pitt to his
colleagues. The two ambassadors were endeavouring to bring about an
alliance between their king and Louis, and, on March 10, 1761, Fuentes
wrote that "if this is done, at the end of the year we shall have a
peace to our liking and France's," and that England would be compelled
by "force and fear" to do justice to Spain. Pitt soon showed him and
Choiseul how unsafe it was to reckon on English fear.

Along with the French proposals of July 15, Bussy presented Pitt with a
memorial on the grievances of Spain, proposing that England should
terminate her differences with that court, and declaring that the French
king "cannot disguise the danger he apprehends, and of which he must
necessarily partake if these objects which seem nearly to concern his
Catholic majesty shall be the occasion of a war". Pitt was furious at
this insult to his country and at once addressed Bussy in terms
different from the ordinary language of diplomacy. He declared