116 University of California Publications in History

rejected when England stated simply and definitely that the article
of the Treaty of Utrecht which Spain would invoke was no longer
considered in force."
 At about the time of that rebuff, in the spring of 1818, another
serious irritation arose-encroachments by the United States upon
the Floridas. As she had done in previous invasions or border dis-
putes, Spain turned again to the Powers for sympathy and assist-
ance. Onis kept the Spanish ambassador at London, the Duke of
San Carlos, informed of the.events at Amelia Island and on the
Apalachicola in order that he might protest to the English govern-
ment. In June, Pizarro directed a vigorous note to Wellesley, justi-
fying Spain's attitude in the whole negotiation, and urging that
England take some action in repressing United States aggression."
 The British reply was given in a conversation between Castle-
reagh and San Carlos, in which the former stated that Pizarro's
note had been read to the Cabinet. The Spanish minister was told
that his country had reason for complaint, but, as he relates it,
"that England following the system which it had adopted, could
do nothing; that Spain could from then on adopt whatever means
it considered fitting." San Carlos, still anxious to break down the
British aloofness, went over some of the reasons why the ambitions
of the United States were considered a menace to England, in-
eluding the rumored threat of an attack on Canada. But he met
rejection when Castlereagh "replied that the English ministry was
very sorry, that they could not remedy it; that England after the
expenses and sacrifices which it had incurred in the last war, could
only think of its own recovery.'" In this statement Castlereagh
was voicing not only the thought of England's own welfare, but the
prevailing British opinion that Spain did not appreciate Welling-
ton's services in the Peninsular War.
 When two British subjects were executed by Andrew Jackson
in East Florida, the problem came closer home, but still brought no
action. British popular opinion was aroused to a dangerous point,
and Castlereagh had to exercise his best efforts to achieve a tactful
settlement. He said later that "such was the temper of Parliament
and such the feeling of the country, he believed war might have
been produced by holding up a finger; and he even thought an
address to the Crown might have been carried for one, by nearly
an unanimous vote."' Alexander Arbuthnot, a British trader whom