n
another as stupid slothfulness. If later critics would seek to realize
the amount of information possessed by fallible mortals at the time of
their decisions, the world would be spared floods of censure. How was
Pitt to know that the Dutch were about to hamper, rather than assist,
the defence of their land by the Allies; that Prussia would play him
false; that the schisms among the French Royalists would make Quiberon a
word of horror; that Paoli would stir up strife in Corsica; or that
Spain was preparing to ruin British rule in Hayti? With loyal
cooperation on the part of the Allies, all these enterprises might have
proceeded successfully side by side.

There were no solid reasons for distrusting Spain. The Court of Madrid
had eagerly taken up arms against the regicides of Paris; and Pitt, as
we shall see, early sought to avoid friction in the West Indies.
Otherwise, he would be highly blameable; for England's easy acquisition
of Hayti could not but ruffle the feelings of the Dons. No chord in the
highly strung nature of the Spaniard vibrates so readily and so
powerfully as that of pride in the retention or recovery of the
conquests of his ancestors. The determination of the Court of Madrid to
win back Louisiana and the Floridas, not to speak of Minorca, had
potently influenced its policy in the recent past, and the prospect of
seeing the Union Jack wave over Hayti and Corsica now envenomed the ever
open wound of Gibraltar. True, the French colonists of Hayti, acting
through their local Assemblies, had the right to will away their land to
England. Spain, at least, could not say them nay; but none the less she
longed to see her flag float once more over the western districts which
had slipped from her grasp.

Pitt and Grenville had early foreseen trouble ahead with Spain on the
subject of the West Indies. When affairs at Toulon were causing
friction, Grenville instructed Lord St. Helens, British ambassador at
Madrid, to urge that Court to secure the hoped-for indemnities in the
French districts north of the Pyrenees. As for England, she had in view
Hayti and certain of the French Leeward Islands. This plan, continued
Grenville, could not offend Spain, seeing that the Haytian or western
part of San Domingo fronted Jamaica and fell naturally to the Power
holding that island. But, as the Court of Madrid was known to cherish
desires for a part of Hayti, St. Helens must endeavour to ascertain
their extent so as to come