6. It will
be as effectual. To all the mismanagements of Spain and Portugal, urged
to show that war against those people is ineffectual, I urge a single
fact to prove the contrary, where there is any management. About forty
years ago, the Algerines having broke their treaty with France, this
court sent Monsieur de Massiac, with one large and two small frigates:
he blockaded the harbor of Algiers three months, and they subscribed
to the terms he proposed. If it be admitted, however, that war, on the
fairest prospects, is still exposed to uncertainties, I weigh against
this the greater uncertainty of the duration of a peace bought with
money, from such a people, from a Dey eighty years old, and by a nation
who, on the hypothesis of buying peace, is to have no power on the sea
to enforce an observance of it.
So far I have gone on the supposition, that the whole weight of this war
would rest on us. But, 1. Naples will join us. The character of their
naval minister (Acton), his known sentiments with respect to the peace
Spain is officiously trying to make for them, and his dispositions
against the Algerines, give the best grounds to believe it.
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