gust 1779, at New Orleans, no formal acknowledgement of it had been made by the court of Spain, with whom all Mr. Jay's efforts to negotiate a treaty of amity and alliance, had proved fruitless. Under these circumstances, Mr. Jay thought himself justifiable in declining to act with the Count de Aranda, the Spanish ambassadour, unless that minister would agree to an exchange of commissions. On the other hand, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner appointed to treat with the Americans, was not authorised to acknowledge their independence in the first instance, but merely to make it the subject of a provisional article of the treaty. To this Mr. Jay objected, on the ground that as the United States must necessarily continue annexed to France by the treaty, and be compelled to fight her battles, and promote her views, no peace could be accomplished, until their independence was acknowledged, and that this acknowledgement therefore, must be a preliminary to negotiations for a peace. The French minister, on the contrary, by whose "advice and opinion" the American commissioners were instructed ultimately to govern themselves, thought the provisional acknowledgement quite sufficient, and consequently that the powers of Mr. Oswald embraced all that was necessary. Dr. Franklin, and the Spanish ambassadour agreed with the Count de Vergennes, but Mr. Jay persisted in his objections, in which he was so far countenanced by Mr. Adams, that he refused to leave Holland, and join in the negotiation, until new powers should be given to Mr. Oswald.

In this state of mutual misunderstanding, affairs remained for several months, until Mr. Jay succeeded in convincing Mr. Oswald himself of the validity of

his objections, and of gaining over his colleague, Dr. Franklin, to his views. The French and Spanish ministers, in the mean time, perplexed at the obstinacy of the American commissioner, secretly despatched a confidential messenger to England, with the view, as it was suspected, of obtaining a private audience of Lord Shelburne, before the application for a new commission could be made to him. This business, however, was not conducted in so secret a manner, but that Mr. Jay received intelligence of it, in time to counteract the effect of any overtures that it might be intended to make to the British minister, by explaining to his lordship the reasoning which had served to convince Mr. Oswald, and the mutual advantages which would obviously result from treating separately with the United States, as independent.

Lord Shelburne, whose system of politicks, as has been seen, had yielded to necessity, and who no longer entertained even a remote hope that any thing could be gained by still refusing to acknowledge the independence of the United States, readily listened to the communications of Mr. Jay, and a new commission was immediately issued, not only empowering Mr. Oswald to make the required acknowledgement, but authorising him to treat separately with the commissioners of the United States. This was the great object at which the American commissioners aimed; as by this, they were enabled to insist upon their right to an equal participation of the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, from which they believed it to be no less the wish of France than of England, to exclude them.

Mr. Adams left Holland, as soon as he heard of this new arrangement, and arrived in Paris towards the latter end of October. The negotiation was immediately opened, and contrary to the express instructions of Congress, not only without the advice and approbation of the French minister, but without his privity. Mr. Oswald for some time strenuously contended against the right of the Americans to the fisheries; but the eloquence of the American negotiators upon a subject in which their constituents were so nearly concerned, was at length irresistible, and this point being reluctantly yielded, provisional articles were soon after agreed upon and signed on the 30th of November, subject to future ratification, when the terms of a general peace should be finally settled with France.

CONCLUSION.

THE secresy and despatch with which the American commissioners had brought the negotiation to a conclusion, and the very favourable terms which by their industry, skill and perseverance, they had obtained for their country, created no less surprise at the French court, than dissatisfaction and indignation in the Parliament of England. The latter were so loud in their expressions of disapprobation, that serious fears were entertained, lest all the measures for a general pacification should be set aside or suspended, and hostilities be once more commenced.

In addition to the common enjoyment of the fisheries, the boundaries which our commissioners had procured for the United States, were much more extensive, than any which had been claimed by them in their colonial state. These boundaries comprehended the country on both sides of the Ohio, and the extensive Indian lands on the east side of the Missisippi, some of the nations inhabiting which, had been allies of Great Britain. The free navigation of the Mississippi was regarded as a concession, which the revolted colonies had no right to demand; and the abandonment of the loyalists to the mercy of Congress, was reprobated by their friends in parliament, as giving them up to the fury of a populace who regarded them as more inveterate and cruel enemies than the natives of Great Britain. It was represented as idle and fallacious, to suppose that Congress could or would protect them, or make restitution of their confiscated estates; and upon the whole it was

urged that an agreement in such provisional articles of a treaty as those which the folly and weakness of Mr. Oswald had granted, would be to tarnish the character and prostrate the glory of the British nation.

The freedom with which Mr. Oswald was ridiculed, was extended also to the new minister, Lord Shelburne, whose conduct was severely censured as weak and inconsistent; and this minister soon found himself so greatly in the minority, that he was glad to retire from a political contest, in which it was obvious, private interests and passions had more influence than concern for the publick welfare. He was succeeded by the Duke of Portland, and a coalition was formed as singular and extraordinary, as that which seven years before, had been raised up, under the auspices of the Earl of Chatham. Lord North and Mr. Fox, between whose political sentiments there had been for eight years an irreconcileable difference, were now seen to act together with the cordiality of long established friendship. Mr. Oswald was recalled from Paris, and Mr. Hartley was deputed by the new minister to take his place.

The ferment which this discussion created in Parliament, served no other purpose than to retard the general negotiations: for as far as they regarded the United States, neither the high tone of the British cabinet, nor the ingenuity and address of Mr. Oswald's successor, were able to effect any change in the stipulations of the provisional treaty. Young as the United States were in affairs of diplomacy, it would not have been easy to have found four gentlemen better qualified to meet the profound and subtle statesmen of Europe, than our commissioners on this occa