Note 169 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
“They [the Spanish Ministers] also report that we have given a verbal assurance to evacuate the Falkland Islands in the space of two months.”—(Letter from Mr. Harris to Lord Rochford, 14th February, in Malmesbury Correspondence, vol. i. p. 77.)—This was probably the origin of the report so generally credited at the time, and which the Spaniards circulated as much as possible in order to save their honour. The English Ministers, however, may have stated that the Islands might soon be given up as not worth keeping, which indeed speedily happened.—E.