| Content Description | Discusses a meeting with Mr Prendergast; reveals the Spanish Government has requested a reduction in the cost of the last 100,000 muskets, as many of them proved 'unserviceable'; expresses surprise that the question of quality should be raised 'after so many years have elapsed'; reveals the amount demanded by Great Britain may double if interest is added and this may persuade the Spanish Government to settle the debt without further discussion; reveals Calderón Collantes has not been informed of the content of this despatch in case he 'instructs Mr Prendergast to be less frank in his communication'; reveals no reductions 'should be granted on an account which ought to have been paid twenty years ago'. |