Page:Political Tracts.djvu/113

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FALKLAND’s ISLANDS.
103

conceſſion, but only that what right we had, is not by this conceſſion vacated. We have now for more than two centuries ruled large tracts of the American continent, by a claim which perhaps is valid only upon this consideration, that no power can produce a better; by the right of diſcovery and prior ſettlement. And by ſuch titles almoſt all the dominions of the earth are holden, except that their original is beyond memory, and greater obſcurity gives them greater veneration. Should we allow this plea to be annulled, the whole fabrick of our empire ſhakes at the foundation. When you ſuppoſe yourſelves to have firſt deſcried the diſputed iſland, you ſuppoſe what you can hardly prove. We were at leaſt the general diſcoverers of the Magellanick region, and have hitherto held it with all its adjacencies. The juſtice of this tenure the world has hitherto admitted, and yourſelves at leaſt tacitly allowed it, when about twenty years ago you deſiſted from

your