The Lords justices read this outrageous note with indignation, and sent it with all speed to Loo.
Thence they received, with equal speed, directions to send Canales out of the country.

Our ambassador was at the same time recalled from Madrid; and all diplomatic intercourse between England and Spain was suspended.
It is probable that Canales would have expressed himself in a less unbecoming manner, had there not already existed a most unfortunate quarrel between Spain and William, a quarrel in which William was perfectly blameless, but in which the unanimous feeling of the English Parliament and of the English nation was on the side of Spain.
It is necessary to go back some years for the purpose of tracing the origin and progress of this quarrel.

Few portions of our history are more interesting or instructive; but few have been more obscured and distorted by passion and prejudice.

The story is an exciting one; and it has generally been told by writers whose judgment had been perverted by strong national partiality.

Their invectives and lamentations have still to be temperately examined; and it may well be doubted whether, even now, after the lapse of more than a century and a half, feelings hardly compatible with temperate examination will not be stirred up in many minds by the name of Darien.