From this moment, the whole nation can witness, that no time was lost.
The navy was surveyed, the ships refitted, and commanders appointed; and
a powerful fleet was assembled, well manned and well stored, with
expedition, after so long a peace, perhaps, never known before, and with
vigour, which, after the waste of so long a war, scarcely any other
nation had been capable of exerting.
This preparation, so illustrious in the eyes of Europe, and so
efficacious in its event, was obstructed by the utmost power of that
noisy faction, which has too long filled the kingdom, sometimes with the
roar of empty menace, and sometimes with the yell of hypocritical
lamentation. Every man saw, and every honest man saw with detestation,
that they who desired to force their sovereign into war, endeavoured, at
the same time, to disable him from action.
The vigour and spirit of the ministry easily broke through all the
machinations of these pygmy rebels, and our armament was quickly such as
was likely to make our negotiations effectual.
The prince of Masseran, in his first conference with the English
ministers on this occasion, owned that he had from Madrid received
intelligence, that the English had been forcibly expelled from
Falkland's island, by Buccarelli, the governour of Buenos Ayres, without
any particular orders from the king of Spain.
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