CHAPTER VI.

SHELBURNE STRIVES SINCERELY FOR PEACE.

JULY-AUGUST 1782.

On the death of Rockingham, the king offered to Shelburne by letter "the employment of first lord of the treasury, and with it the fullest political confidence." Of no British minister had the principles been so liberal. He wished a thorough reform of the representation of the people of Great Britain in parliament. Far from him was the thought that the prosperity of America could be injurious to England. He regarded neighboring nations as associates ministering to each other's welfare, and wished to form with France treaties of commerce as well as of peace. But Fox, who was entreated to remain in the ministry as secretary of state with a colleague of his own choosing and an ample share of power, set up against him the narrow-minded duke of Portland, under whose name the old aristocracy was to rule parliament, king, and people. To gratify the violence of his headstrong pride, he threw away the opportunity of taking a chief part in restoring peace to the world, and struck a blow at liberal government in his own country from which it did not recover in his lifetime.

The old whig aristocracy was on the eve of dissolution. In a few years those of its members who, like Burke and the duke of Portland, were averse to "shaking the smallest particle of the settlement at the revolution of 1688," were to merge themselves in the new tory or conservative party; the rest adopted the watchword of reform; and, when they began to govern, it was with the principles of Chatham and Shelburne. Fox, who was already brooding on a coalition with

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the ministry so lately overthrown, insisted with his friends that Lord Shelburne was as fully devoted to the court as Lord North in his worst days. But Lord North, in his love of office, had, contrary to his own judgment, persisted in the American war to please the king; Shelburne accepted power only after he had brought the king to consent to peace with independent America.

For the home department the king preferred William Pitt, who seemed to be in little danger of "becoming too much dipped in the wild measures" of "the leaders of sedition;" but it was assigned to the more experienced Thomas Townshend; and Pitt, at three-and-twenty years old, became chancellor of the exchequer. The seals of the foreign office were intrusted to Lord Grantham.

In the house of commons Fox, on the ninth of July, made his defence, which, in its vagueness and hesitation, betrayed his consciousness that he had no ground to stand upon. In the debate Conway said with truth that eagerness for exclusive power had been the guiding motive of Fox, between whom and Shelburne the difference of policy for America was very immaterial; but Shelburne had been able to convince his royal master that an acquiescence in its independence was, from the situation of the country and the necessity of the case, the wisest and most expedient measure that government could adopt. Burke called heaven and earth to witness the sincerity of his belief that "the ministry of Lord Shelburne would be fifty times worse than that of Lord North," declaring that "his accursed principles were to be found in Machiavel, and that but for want of understanding he would be a Catiline or a Borgia." "Shelburne has been faithful and just to me," wrote William Jones to Burke, deprecating his vehemence: "the principles which he has professed to me are such as my reason approved." "In all my intercourse with him, I never saw any instance of his being insincere," wrote Franklin, long after Shelburne had retired from office. On the tenth, Shelburne said in the house of lords: "I stand firmly upon my consistency. I never will consent that a certain number of great lords should elect a prime minister who is the creature of an aristocracy and is vested with the plenitude of power, while the king is

nothing more than a pageant or a puppet. In that case, the monarchical part of the constitution would be absorbed by the aristocracy, and the famed constitution of England would be no more. The members of the cabinet can vouch that the principle laid down relative to peace with America has not in the smallest degree been departed from. Nothing is farther from my intention than to renew the war in America; the sword is sheathed, never to be drawn there again.”

On the day on which Fox withdrew from the ministry, Shelburne wrote to Oswald: "I hope to receive early assurances from you that my confidence in the sincerity and good faith of Doctor Franklin has not been misplaced, and that he will concur with you in endeavoring to render effectual the great work in which our hearts and wishes are so equally interested. We have adopted his idea of the method to come to a general pacification by treating separately with each party. I beg him to believe that I can have no idea or design of acting toward him and his associates but in the most open, liberal, and honorable manner."

Franklin, from his long residence in England, knew thoroughly well the relations of its parties, and the character of its public men, of whom the best were his personal friends. He was aware how precarious was the hold of Shelburne on power; and he made all haste to bring about an immediate pacification. On the tenth of July, in his own house near Paris, and at his own invitation, he had an interview with Oswald, and proposed to him the American conditions of peace. The articles which could not be departed from were: the full and complete independence of the thirteen states, and the withdrawal of all British troops from them; the territorial integrity of each one of them, as they were before the Quebec act of 1774, if not a still more contracted state, on a more ancient footing; the settlement of the boundaries between the American colonies and Canada; a freedom of fishing on the banks of Newfoundland and elsewhere, as well for fishes as whales, and, as Oswald understood him, with the right to dry fish on land. Having already explained that nothing could be done for the loyalists by the United States, as their estates had been confiscated by laws of particular states which congress had no

power to repeal, he further demonstrated that Great Britain, by its conduct and example, had forfeited every right to intercede for them. To prove it he read to Oswald the orders of the British in Carolina for confiscating and selling the lands and property of all patriots under the direction of the military; and he declared definitively that, though the separate governments might show compassion where it was deserved, the American commissioners for peace could not make compensation of refugees a part of the treaty. He further directed attention to the persistent, systematic destruction of American property by the British armies, as furnishing a claim to indemnity which might be set off against the demands of British merchants for debts contracted before the war. Franklin recommended, but not as an ultimatum, a perfect reciprocity in regard to ships and trade. He was at that time employed on a treaty of reimbursement to France by the United States for its advances of money; and he explained to Oswald, as he had before explained to Grenville, the exact limit of their obligations to France.

Franklin intimated that American affairs must be ended by a separate commission, and that he did not from any connection with other states hesitate as to coming to a conclusion, so as to end the American quarrel in a short time. The negotiation was opened and kept up with the knowledge of Vergennes; but Franklin withheld from him everything relating to its conditions. Jay, who had arrived in Paris on the twenty-third of June, from severe illness took no part in this interview.

The moment when England accepted the necessity of conceding independence to the thirteen colonies which she had trained to the love of freedom and by her own inconsistencies had forced to take up arms, was in its importance one of the grandest moments in her history. But the voice of the house of commons was confused by its memories and regrets, the rancor of conflicting parties, and the reserve of statesmen for whom the new morning was about to dawn. The house of commons, as with averted eyes it framed a bill permitting its king to let thirteen colonies go free, did its work awkwardly but thoroughly. They expressed the wish for peace, and authorized the king to treat with the thirteen enumerated colo

nies as one power. The officials who drew the commission for Oswald could not but move on the lines prescribed by parliament, and frame the commission of the negotiator for peace with shyness, designating the thirteen "colonies" by name, and clearly and certainly inviting their commissioners as the representatives of one self-existent power to treat for peace. Throughout the paper the greatest care was taken not to question their independence, which by plain implication was taken for granted.

So soon as Shelburne saw a prospect of a general pacification, Alleyne Fitzherbert, the British minister at Brussels, was transferred to Paris, to be the channel of communication with Spain, France, and Holland. He brought letters to Franklin from Lord Grantham who expressed his desire to merit Franklin's confidence, and from Townshend who declared himself the zealous friend to peace upon the fairest and most liberal terms.

While the commission and instructions of Oswald were preparing, Shelburne accepted the ultimatum of Franklin in all its branches; and on the twenty-seventh he replied to Oswald: "Your several letters give me the greatest satisfaction, as they contain unequivocal proofs of Doctor Franklin's sincerity and confidence in those with whom he treats. It will be the study of his majesty's ministers to return it by every possible cordiality. There never have been two opinions since you were sent to Paris upon the acknowledgment of American independency. But, to put this matter out of all possibility of doubt, a commission will be immediately forwarded to you containing full powers to make the independency of the colonies the basis and preliminary of the treaty now depending. I have never made a secret of the deep concern I feel in the separation of countries united by blood, by principles, habits, and every tie short of territorial proximity. But I have long since given it up, decidedly though reluctantly; and the same motives which made me, perhaps, the last to give up all hope of reunion make me most anxious, if it is given up, that it shall be done so as to avoid all future risk of enmity and lay the foundation of a new connection, better adapted to the temper and interest of both countries. In this view I go further with Dr. Franklin, perhaps, than he is aware of. I