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The GA Trustees vehemently protested El Pardo Convention

Source: The Debatable Land #557

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The Convention of El Pardo was destined to failure. The Georgia Trustees, fearing that their province might be sacrificed, bombarded Walpole with demands for protection, and he promised it with a manly oath. "Sr Robert hearing this, call'd to Col. Bladen, and ask'd him whether England had a right to Georgia? yes, reply'd the Col' Can you prove it, said Sr Robert, and will you undertake it? the Col' answer'd he would. Then, said S* Robert, By G-d the Spaniards shall not have it." Under further pressure the Trustees forced Walpole to defend England's "possessions" as well as her "rights" in America. This confession that the two were not identical was not lost on the Spanish diplomats. Egmont wrote in his Diary: "But when they saw that the Convention would pass, they obliged Sir Robert Walpole to put the word 'possession' into the address [to the Commons], which was of the greatest service for defeating the ensuing treaty with Spain, because thereby the Ministry were tied down from giving up an inch of ground to the Spaniards, which they have declared unless they are allowed to have restored to them, they will never make a treaty." 1