19. Sir _Benjamin Keene_, Knight of the Bath, was born at Lynn, in 1697. He was the eldest son of Charles Keene, Esq; a merchant and alderman of this borough, who served the office of Mayor in 1714–15. Young Keene was probably educated at the Free School in this town, and was thence removed to Pembroke Hall in the University of Cambridge, where he took his degree of civil law. He afterwards continued his studies for a few years at Leyden. It is said that the misfortunes of Mr. Keene, the father, in trade, first recommended the family to the humanity and the protection of Sir Robert Walpole, who afterwards acknowledged that the talents and integrity of the son, in a public station of peculiar difficulty, had more than repaid his beneficence. In July 1724, Mr. Benjamin Keene was appointed the British Consul at Madrid, and in 1727 Minister Plenipotentiary at the Spanish Court. He was afterwards sent Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of Portugal, and then removed with the character of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain. It was before observed, in the biographical sketch of Sir R. Walpole, that it was the great and meritorious object of that minister to preserve his country in a state of peace: his instructions on this point appear to have been executed by his pupil, Mr. Keene, with equal ability and dignity. At an early period of the clamour on account of what was called the Spanish Depredations, {1070} the origin of the differences, and the difficulty of adjusting them, were thus clearly explained by the Ambassador in a letter to the Secretary of State— “Upon the whole, the state of our dispute seems to be, that the commanders of our vessels always think, that they are unjustly taken, if they are not taken in _actual_ illicit commerce, even though proofs of their having loaded in that manner are found upon them; and the Spaniards on the other hand presume, that they have a right of seizing, not only the ships that are actually trading in their ports, but likewise of examining and visiting them on the high seas, in order to search, for proofs of fraud, which they may have committed; and till a medium be found out between these two notions, the government will always be embarrassed with complaints, and we shall be continually negotiating in this country for redress, without our being able to procure it.”