Therefore the said Capitulation ought to be void, because it was signed by force; and because General Draper first violated and broke the Capitulation, by permitting the City to be pillaged. Consequently, that Capitulation only, which was proposed by the Governor, accepted of, and signed by Admiral Cornish and General Draper, upon the seventh of October, ought to be considered and respected in this Affair. The First Article of which grants to the Inhabitants of Manila, the peaceable and quiet Possession of all their Effects; the Fourth and Sixth grant them the Liberty of Commerce, under the Protection of his Britannic Majesty. Refutation It is a known and universal Rule of War amongst the most civilized Nations, that Places taken by Storm, without any Capitulation, are subject to all the Miseries that the Conquerors may chuse to inflict. Manila, my Lord, was in this horrid Situation; of Consequence the Lives of the Inhabitants, with all belonging to them, were entirely at our Mercy. But Christianity, Humanity, the Dignity of our Nation, and our own Feelings as Men, induced us not to exert the utmost Rigours of the Profession, against those wretched Suppliants; although my own Secretary, Lieutenant Fryar, had been murdered, as he was carrying a Flag of Truce to the Town. The Admiral and I told the Archbishop and principal Magistrates, that we were desirous to save so fine a City from Destruction, ordered them to withdraw, consult, and propose such Terms of Compensation as might satisfy the Fleet and Army, and exempt them from Pillage, and its fatal Consequences. The Proposals they gave in, were the very same, which the Spaniards most artfully call a Second Capitulation; and were afterwards agreed to, and confirmed by us (with a few Restrictions) but at that time were so unsuitable to their desperate Situation, that we rejected them as unsatisfactory and inadmissible. As Conquerors, we took the Pen, and dictated those Terms of the Ransom which the Spaniards thought proper to submit to; for they had the Alternative, either to be passive under the Horrors of a Pillage, or compound for their Preservation; they accepted the latter. The Objection and Pretence of Force and Violence may be made use of to evade any military Agreements whatsoever, where the two Parties do not treat upon an Equality; for who, in War, will submit to an inconvenient and prejudicial Compact, unless from Force? But have the Spaniards forgot their own Histories? Or will they not remember the just Indignation expressed against Francis the First, who pleaded the like Subterfuge of Force and Violence, to evade the Treaty made after the Battle of Pavia, and his Captivity?