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hould expeditiously and without committing deftruction of any fort, withdraw all his armies, garrifons, and fleets, from every port, place, and harbour of the United States. The navigation of the river Mitfiffippi from its fource to the ocean, was to remain for ever free and open to the fubjects of Great Britain, and the citizens of the United States. In fine, it was agreed in the event, that if any place or territory belonging to Great Britain, or to the, United States, fhould be conquered by the arms of either, before the arrival of the provincial articles in America, it fould be restored with out compenfation or difficulty.

It was not with equal fuccefs that the negociations for peace were carried on with Holland. In a memorial to Mr. Fitzherbert, prefented to him at Paris, by the plenipotentiaries of the States-General, intimations of advantages were made which could not be granted. In confequence of inftructions from his Britannic majefty, he replied with a becoming fpirit to their requifitions. He informed them, that as the republic difcovered little inclination to renew thofe ties in which former times had bound them to Great Britain, it was proper that they fhould conduct themselves in all commercial affairs, which might take place between Great Britain and them, purely and fimply by the general principles of the rights of mankind; and to this declaration he added, that as foon as the nations engaged in the prefent war, fhould begin to form thofe commercial arrangements, which the new engagements that fhall fubfift between them, will render neceffary, his Britannic majefty would be ready to contract with them fuch commercial treaties as may correfpond with the fituation of the two 1783.

ftates, and with their refpective interefts. They were affured that the king of Great Britain was willing, from his moderation, to restore to their high mightineffes, all the poffeffions which had been taken from them by his arms, excepting Trincomale, in the ifland of Ceylon, with its dependencies. With regard to an indemnification of the loffes which the United Provinces had experienced during the war, they were told that this pretenfion could not be admitted, as being equally repugnant to reafon and equity. But they were admonished at the fame time, that the king of Great Britain confented, without any reluctance, that the divifion of prizes taken by his fubjects previ oufly to the rupture, fhould be fubmitted to the courts of justice of the British admiralty, agreeably to the established rules of nations.

To thefe propofitions, the plenipotentiaries of the ftates-general, expreffed their diflike. They did not underftand what the court of London meant by "The general principles of the rights of mankind." If by this expreffion thofe principles were fignified which are drawn from the primitive rights of nations, which render the navigation and conveyance of all kinds of merchandize without diftinction entirely free, without any obftruction whatever, excepting warlike ftores, they were perfuaded that their high mighti neffes, would have no difficulty in admitting it, as the bafis of a negociation; and they expreffed themfelves to be ready to engage in founding on this the definitive treaty of a peace, or a treaty of private commerce, as foon as the nations concerned in the prefent war fhould determine to enter into commercial arrangements. They could

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not reconcile the detention of Trincomalè, with what was termed the moderation of his Britannic majefty; and it was their opinion, that their high mightineffes would not fubmit to authorize an article of that kind. As to an indemnification of loffes, they avoided finally to enter upon it till it fhould appear that the court of London was difpofed to approach to equitable heads of accommodation and alliance.

Soon after the preliminary treaties with France and Spain, and the provifional articles with America, were prefented by lord Grantham to the house of lords, they were fubmitted to the commons by Mr. Secretary Townshend. Being or dered by both houfes to be printed, they were immediately founded over the kingdom. Different fentiments, as it was natural to expect, were entertained of them; and prefages were formed of the ftability or danger of the minifter, as they ftruck the obferver with the fentiment of approbation or demerit. But before their ratification it was not proper that they fhould be formally debated in parliament. At length it was announced that the ratification of the treaties with France and Spain had taken place. In this forward ftate of the negociations, motions were made in both houfes to take them into confideration; and to examine at the fame time into the treaty with the United States of America.

When the preliminary Feb. 17 articles of peace were read in the houfe of peers, lord Pembroke expreffed a hope that they would merit the approbation of their lordhips; and delivered it as his opinion, that a general pacification would relieve the nation from an intolerable load of taxes, revive and extend our commerce, reftore the mutuality of affection between

Great Britain and America, and eftablish tranquillity in Europe. He therefore moved, "that an humble addrefs fhould be prefented to his majefty, to return him thanks for his condefcenfion in laying before them the preliminary articles of the different treaties; and to affure him that they have confidered them with that attention which they deferve. To exprefs to him in the moft grateful manner their fatisfaction for his having, in confequence of the powers trusted to him, laid the foundation by the provifional articles with the States of North America, for a treaty of peace, which they trufted would enfure perfect reconciliation and friendship between the two countries. That in this confidence they prefumed to convey to his majefty their juft expectation

that the feveral ftates of America would carry into effectual and fatisfactory execution, thofe measures which the congrefs is fo folemnly bound by the treaty to recommend in favour of fuch perfonis as have fuffered for the part they have taken in the war, and that they confider thefe circumftances as the fureft indication of a returning friendship; and to acknowledge to his majefty their due fenfe of that wife and paternal regard for the happinefs of his fubjects, which induced him to relieve them from a burthenfome and expenfive war, by the preliminary articles of peace concluded between his majesty and the moft chriftian and catholic kings. To affure his majesty that they fhould encourage and promote every exertion of his fubjects in Great Brítain and Ireland in the cultivation and improvement of thofe refources which might tend to the certain augmentation of our public ftrength, and that with these views they fhould moft diligently turn their attention to

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the revifion of all our commercial laws, and endeavour to frame them upon fuch liberal principles as may beft extend our trade and naviga tion, and proportionably increafe his majefty's naval power, which can alone infure the profperity of his kingdoms."

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Great Britain, as delivered Canada and Nova Scotia fettered into the hands of the congrefs. The forts, the paffes, the fittest places for the fur trade; all that was valuable, was furrendered to our enemies. Our conceffions were made with fo heedlefs a prodigality, that even the free navigation of the Miffiffippi, fo affectedly granted to us, was rendered ufelefs and abortive Our Indian allies, too, who placed a confidence in us, and who had been taught to account Great Britain as the greateft kingdom in the world, were left to their fate; and our national fate was meanly expofed, not merely to fufpicions, but to the most open and certain reproach. The tranfactions of the miniftry were so abfurd, fo impolitic, fo unjust, and fo cruel, that no apology could be made for them; and it would be in vain to look back into our annals for an example for fuch an accumulation of folly and wickedness. lordship, of confequence, moved an amendment; and the motion with that amendment was to the following purpofe: " to return thanks to his majefty for the communication of the preliminary articles of peace, and for having put a stop to the calamities of war, by a peace, which being concluded, we must confider as binding, and not to be infringed without a violation of the national faith. To affure his majesty that we feel, in the ftrongest manner, the obligation of affording every relief that can alleviate the diftreffes of thofe deferving fubjects, who have expofed themfelves and fortunes for the fupport of Great Britain; and, at the fame time, that we cannot help lamenting the neceffity which bids us fubfcribe to articles, which, confidering the relative fituation of the belligerent powers, we must regard as inadequate to our juft expectations,

This motion was feconded and recommended by the marquis of Carmarthen. It met, however, with a very powerful oppofition. The earl of Carlisle reprobated the negociations for peace as injurious in the highest degree to the interefts and dignity of the nation. He difputed not the prerogative of the crown to make peace or war; but he contended that our condition required and commanded articles more beneficial and honourable. The exhaufted finances of France, the difappointment of Spain in her mighty attempts against Gibraltar, and the fevere loffes which had been fuftain ed by Holland were confiderations infinitely in our favour; and though our debts were great, the people were generous. Peace might in deed be an object to be defired; but it ought to have been purfued with dignity, and obtained with honour. He confidered the treatment of the loyalists as a most wanton and unpardonable oppreffion. Here the want of policy and the contempt of humanity were joined together. To facrifice men who had encountered the greatest hazards to preferve their loyalty to Great Britain was a difgrace not lefs flagrant than pufilanimous. It was an encouragement to defert loyalty and the crown in the day of temptation and danger; and it was to foster the fpirit of mutiny and revolt. Nor was this all. The minifters of his majesty had, through an extreme inaccuracy or an egre gious ignorance, drawn fuch a line of boundary between America and

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pectations, and derogatory to the honour and dignity of Great Britain."

Lord Walfingham, after approving of the fentiments of the earl of Carlifle, queftioned the right of the crown to difmember the empire without the confent of parliament: and lord Sackville, while he deplored the fituation of the loyalifts, and teftified his indignation against the weakness of that policy which had abandoned them, intimated his opinion, that as the congrefs poffeffed no legiflative authority, their recommendations of them, though fincere, might prove ineffectual. In confirmation of this opinion, he exhibited an authentic paper which he had received from Philadelphia, from which it appeared that the province of Virginia had come to the following refolutions. "That the laws of this ftate confifcating property held under the laws of the former government (which had been diffolved and made void) by thofe who have never been admitted into the prefent focial compact, being founded on legal principles, were strongly dictated by that principle of common juftice which demands, that if virtuous citizens, in defence of their natural and conftitutional rights, risk their life, liberty, and property on their fuccefs, the rebellious citizens who fide with tyranny and oppreffion, or who cloak themselves under the mafk of neutrality, should at least hazard their property, and not enjoy the benefits procured by the labours and dangers of thofe whofe deftruction they wifhed. That all demands and requefts of the British court, for the reftitution of property confifcated by this ftate, being neither fupported by law, equity, or policy, are wholly inadmisible; and that our delegates be inftructed to move congrefs,

that they may direct their deputies, who fhall reprefent the ftates in the general congrefs for adjufting a peace or truce, neither to agree to any fuch reftitution, or fubmit that the laws made by any independent state of this union, be fubjected to the ad. judication of any power or powers on earth."

Lord Stormont 1poke for the amendment. After diverting himfelf with the abilities of Mr. Of wald as a negociator, he contrafted the treatment of the loyalists with the very different conduct which Spain had adopted in a fimilar fituation. Great Britain ignominiously made a facrifice of the most faithful

of her fons. But Spain, grateful as well as juft, protected the loyalifts in the Netherlands during the reign of Philip III. By the truce of Antwerp, and the peace of Munfter, the most ample protection was given to their effects and eftates; and a general act of indemnity was paffed, without exception of place or perfon. This bafe dereliction of the royalists by the minifters of Great Britain was unexampled in the records of hiftory; and there was alfo an inexpreffible meannefs in the defertion of our Indian allies, with whom we had been long connected, on whom we had beftowed the ap pellation of the children of the king, and with whom we had folemnly engaged to preferve an entire and cordial friendfhip as long as the woods, and the mountains, and the rivers fhould remain. Upon Mr. Ofwald he conferred the title of a very extraordinary geographer and politician; and it appeared to him, that by the boundary line a greed upon by this statesman and the American commiffioners, every idea of reciprocity had been facrí ficed, and that the advantage of America was alone confulted. He

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exclaimed against the conceffions on Newfoundland, and animadverted on the ceded iflands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, and on the furren der of whatever was most important in Canada. He regretted the lofs of the Floridas; and he proteled that St. Lucia was of fuch military confequence, that with that in our hands we might have stood upon the wi poffidetis in the West Indies. He cenfured feverely the ceffions on the coast of Africa; he enlarged on the wild impolicy of the prodigality of that favour which had been flown to France with regard to the Eaft Indies; and finally, he inveighed against the fufpenfion of the articles which had fo long fubfifted on the fubject of Dunkirk. He conflered that harbour as of the higheft importance to France. It could contain twenty or thirty fhips of a formidable fize; which, in the event of a future war, might annoy our trade in its centre, and counterbalance all the advantages of our local fituation for commerce. By permitting the French to repair Dunkirk the miniftry, he obferved, made the king to fay, " To fhew my good brother of France, how earnestly I defire his friendship, I will give him up Dunkirk for the conveniency of making war upon my loving fubjects."

The earl of Shelburne defended himself and his colleagues with great ability. He hinted at the hardihood which he had fhewn in entering upon public affairs at a moft critical period; and he spoke of the generous enterprize of his affociates in the administration. He declared that peace was the object for which the nation at large had difcovered the most unequivocal defire; and that in conducting it, men profoundly fkilled in trade and all that related to it had been anxiously confulted.

The end he had in view was the advantage of his country, and he was certain that he had attained it. There was no occafion for administration to affume a falfe brow of bravery. It was eafy to overthrow unfounded affertions, and fpeculations which were built in the air. Much cenfure had been thrown upon ministry for the boundary they have drawn between the territories of the Unit ed States and thofe of our fovereign in Canada. Yet in this they had been directed by views which could' not be oppofed without the most manifeft abfurdity. The exports of this country to Canada, were one hundred and forty thousand pounds, and the imports were not more than fifty thousand pounds. Now it ought not to be contended that fifty thoufand pounds a year was a fufficient object to induce the continuation of a war, of which the people of England, by their reprefentatives, had declared their moft pofitive ab horrence. But in fact, the trade to Canada was not given up: it was only divided; and in fuch a way as to prove beneficial to Great Britain, Monopolies are at all times odious, and whatever can conduce to rivalfhip, advances the fpirit of traffic. It was alfo obfervable, that the best refources of trade in Canada lie to the northward. For though beavers are to be found in all thofe countries of North America which are fituated between the thirtieth and the fixtieth degrees of latitude, yet their clothing is much thicker, and the animals themselves more numerous in the northern than in the fouthern climes.

The retention of the forts which lie on the South of the British boundary, his lordship remarked, would have been a violation of the right principles of prudence and policy, For to have preferved them as

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