ld aloof from the Polish war rendered
this compact inoperative for the time; but neither of the Bourbon
courts ceased to look forward to its future execution. The peace of
1736 was indeed a mere pause in the struggle which their union made
inevitable. No sooner was the war ended than France strained every nerve
to increase her fleet; while Spain steadily tightened the restrictions
on British commerce with her American colonies. It was the dim, feverish
sense of the drift of these efforts that embittered every hour the
struggle of English traders with the Spaniards in the southern seas. The
trade with Spanish America, which, illegal as it was, had grown largely
through the connivance of Spanish port-officers during the long alliance
of England and Spain in the wars against France, had at last received a
legal recognition in the Peace of Utrecht. But it was left under narrow
restrictions; and Spain had never abandoned the dream of restoring its
old monopoly. Her efforts however to restore it had as yet been baffled;
while the restrictions were evaded by a vast system of smuggling which
rendered what remained of the Spanish monopoly all but valueless. Philip
however persisted in his efforts to bring down English intercourse with
his colonies to the importation of negroes and the despatch of a single
merchant vessel, as stipulated by the Treaty of Utrecht; and from the
moment of the compact with France the restrictions were enforced with a
fresh rigour. Collisions took place which made it hard to keep the
peace; and in 1738 the ill humour of the trading classes was driven to
madness by the appearance of a merchant captain named Jenkins at the bar
of the House of Commons. He told the tale of his torture by the
Spaniards, and produced an ear which, he said, they had cut off amidst
taunts at England and its king. It was in vain that Walpole strove to do
justice to both parties, and that he battled stubbornly against the cry
for a war which he knew to be an unjust one, and to be as impolitic as
it was unjust. He saw that the House of Bourbon was only waiting for the
Emperor's death to deal its blow at the House of Austria; and the
Emperor's death was now close at hand. At such a juncture it was of the
highest importance that England should be free to avail herself of every
means to guard the European settlement, and that she should not tie her
hands by a contest which would divert her attention from the great
crisis which was imp