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volved, and for the gallant and fpirited exertions he had made, from the period of his placing himself at the head of the army in that quar. ter of India..

Dec. 23, 1782. About this time too, the royal affent was given to feveral public bills, of which it was, the object to facilitate the operations of Government. Thefe were, 1. An act for granting an aid to his majefty, by a land-tax, to be raised in Great Britain, for the fervice of the year 1783. 2. An act for continuing and granting to his majesty, certain duties upon malt, mum, cyder,

and perry, for the service of the faid year. 3. An act to permit the importation of wheat, wheat-flour, rye, rye-flour, barley, and all forts of corn, grain, and meal, upon payment of the low duties therein mentioned for a limited time. And, 4. an act to continue an act, made in the last feffion of parliament, intitled, "An act more effectually to prevent his majesty's enemies from being fupplied with fhips or vessels from Great Britain." The parlia ment was now adjourned till the 21ft day of the approaching month of January, 1783.

CHA P. II.

Preliminary Articles with France. Preliminary Articles with Spain. The Provifional Articles with the United States of America. Negociations with Holland. The Publication of the Treaties. The Examination of them in Parliament. Their Fate in the House of Peers.

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HE meeting of the parliament was expected with the greateft impatience; and the concern of the public with regard to the nego ciations for a peace was univerfal and anxious. At length lord Grantham, in a letter to the lord mayor, acquainted him that the preliminary articles between Great Britain and France, and between Great Britain and Spain, were figned at Verfailles. At the fame time he intimated that the preliminaries with Holland were not actually fubfcribed; but that a ceffation of hoftilities with that republic was agreed upon. Soon after, his lordship fubmitted to the houfe of peers the treaties with France and Spain, and the provi. fional articles concluded upon between the commiflioners of the crown and those of the United States of America.

In the treaty between Great Britain and France it was agreed, that peace fhould take place to the fulleft extent, and that measures the most efficacious fhould immediately be executed for putting an end to hoftilities of every kind. Newfoundland was to remain with England as before the commencement of the war; and, to prevent disputes about boundaries, it was accorded that the French fishery fhould begin from Cape St. John on the eastern fide, and going round by the north, fhould have for its boundary Cape Ray on the western fide. The islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, were ceded in full right to France. The French were to continue to fifh in the Gulf of St. Lawrence conformably to the fifth article of the treaty of Paris. The king of Great Britain was to restore to France the

ifland of St. Lucia, and to cede and guaranty to her that of Tobago. The king of France was to furrender to Great Britain the islands of Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Chriftopher's, Nevis, and Montferrat. The river of Senegal and its dependencies, with the forts of St. Louis, Podor, Galam, Arguin, and Portendic, were to be given to France; and the ifland of Goree was to be restored to it. Fort James and the river Gambia were guarantied to his Britannic majefty; and the gum trade was to remain in the fame condition as before the commencement of hoftilities. The king of Great Britain was to restore to his most Christian majefty all the establishmes belonged to him at the breaking out of the war on the coaft of Orixa and in Bengal, with the liberty of furrounding Chandenagor with a ditch for draining the waters; and became engaged to fecure to the fubjects of France in that part of India, and on the coafts of Orixa, Coromandel, and Malabar, a fafe, free, and independent trade, either as private traders, or under the direction of a company. Pondicherry, as well as Karical, was to be rendered back to France; and his Britannie majesty was to give as a dependency round Pondicherry, the two districts of Vallanour and Bahour; and as a dependency round Karical, the four contiguous Magans. The French were again to enter into the poffeffion of Mahé, and of the Comptoir at Surat. The allies of France and Great Britain were to be invited to accede to the prefent pacification; and the term of four months was to be allowed them, for the purpofe of making their decifion. In the event of their averfion from peace no affiftance from either fide was to be given to them, Great

Britain renounced every claim with refpect to Dunkirk. Commithioners were to be appointed refpectively by the two nations to enquire into the ftate of their commerce, and to concert new arrangements of trade on the footing of reciprocity and mutual convenience. All conquefts on either fide, in any part of the world whatfoever, not mentioned nor alluded to in the prefent treaty, were to be restored without difficulty, and without requiring compenfation. It being neceflary that there fhould be a fixed epoch for the reftitutions and furrenders to be made by the contracting parties, it was determined that the king of Great Britain fhould order the evacuation of the iflands of St. Pierre and Miquelon three months after the ratification of the preliminary treaty; and that, if poffible, before the expiration of the fame period he fhould relinquif all connection with St. Lucia in the West Indies, and Goree in Africa. It was ftipulated in like manner, that his Britannic majesty should, at the end of three months after the ratification of the treaty, or fooner, enter into the poffeffion of the iflands of Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Chriftopher's, Nevis, and Montserrat. France was to be put in poffeffion of the towns and comptoirs which were to be restored to her in the Eaft Indies, and of the territories which were to ferve as dependencies round Pondicherry and round Karical fix months after the ratification of the definitive treaty; and at the termination of the fame term she was to rettore the towns and diftricts which her arms might have taken from the English or their allies in that quarter of the globe. The prifoners upon each fide, were reciprocally to be furrendered, and without ranfom, upon the ratification of the treaty;

and

and on paying the debts they might have contracted during their captivity. Each crown was refpectively to reimburse the fums which had been advanced for the maintenance of their prifoners by the country where they had been detained, according to attested and authentic vouchers. With a view to prevent every difpute and complaint on account of prizes which might be made at fea after the figning of the preliminary articles, it was mutually fettled and understood that the veffels and effects which might be taken in the Channel, and in the North feas after the space of twelve days, to be computed from the ratification of the prefent preliminary articles, were to be restored upon each fide; that the term fhould be one month from the Channel and the North Seas, as far as the Canary Islands inclufively, whether in the Ocean or the Miditerranean; two months from the Canary Islands as far as the equinoctial line or equator; and lastly, five months, without exception, in all other parts of the world.

Thefe preliminary articles of peace were concluded at Verfailles, between Mr. Alleyne FitzJan. 20. herbert, minifter plenipotentiary on the part of his Britannic majesty, and Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, the minifter plenipotentiary on the part of the king of France. At the fame time the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and Spain were alfo concluded at Versailles, between Mr. Fitzherbert and the comte D'Aranda, the minifter plenipotentiary for the Spanish monarch. It was agreed that a fincere friendfhip fhould be re-established between his Britannic majefty and his Catholic majefty, their kingdoms, itates, and fubjects by fea and land in all parts

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of the world. His Catholic majefty was to keep the island of Minorca; and was to retain Weft Florida. Eaft Florida was to be ceded to him by the king of Great Britain. Eighteen months from the date of the ratification of the definitive treaty were to be allowed to the fubjects of the lat ter who had fettled in the island of Minorca and in the two Floridas, to fell their eftates, to recover their debts and to tranfport their perfons and effects without being restrained on account of their religion, or on any other pretence whatfoever, except that of debts, and profecutions for crimes. His Britannic majefty was, at the fame time, to have the power to cause all the effects that might belong to him in Eaft Florida, whether artillery or others, to be carried away. The liberty of cutting logwood in a diftrict, of which the boundaries were to be afcertained, without moleftation or disturbance of any kind whatsoever, was permitted to Great Britain. The king of Spain was to restore the islands of Providence, and the Bahamas, without exception, in the condition in which they were when they were conquered by his arms. All other conquefts of territories and countries upon either fide, not included in the prefent articles, were to be mutually restored without difficulty or compenfation. The epoch for the reftitutions to be made, and for the evacuations to take place, the regulations for the release of prifoners, and for the ceffation of captures were exactly the fame as thofe which have already been related, as ftipulated in the preliminary articles with France.

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Richard Ofwald, efq. the commiffioner of his Britannic majefty, and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Lawrence, the commiffioners of the United States of America. Upon the tenet that reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience are found by experience to form the only permanent foundation of peace and friendship between ftates, it was agreed to build the articles of the propofed treaty on fuch principles of liberal equity and reciprocity, as the partial advantages (thofe feeds of difcord) being excluded, fuch a beneficial and fatisfactory intercourfe between the two countries might be established, as to promife and fecure to both perpetual peace and harmony. His Britannic majefty acknowledged the United States, viz. New Hampfhire, Maffachufets Bay, Rhode Ifland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jerfey, Pennfylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free, favereign, and independent ftates. He confented to treat with them in that capacity; and for himself, his heirs, and his fuceeffors, he relinquifhed all claims to the government of them to their propriety and territorial rights. That no difputes might arife in future on the fubject of the boundaries of thefe United States, it was declared that they fhould be "From the north-weft angle of Nova Scotia, that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north, from the fource of St. Croix river to the highlands, along the faid highlands, which divide thofe rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from thofe which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the north wefteramoft head of Connecticut ver; thence down along the mid

dle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence by a line due weft on that latitude until it ftrikes the river Iroquois or Cateraquy; thence along the middle of the faid river into lake Ontario, through the middle of that lake until it ftrikes the communication between the faid lake, and lake Erie; thence along the middle of that communication into lake Erie, through the middle of the faid lake, until it arrives at the water-communication between that lake and lake Huron; thence along the middle of the faid water-communication to the lake Huron; thence through the middle of the faid lake to the water-communication between that lake and lake Superior; thence through lake Superior northward of the ifles Royal and Phillipeaux, to the Long Lake; thence through the middle of the faid Long Lake, and the water-communication between it and the lake of the Woods, to the faid lake of the Woods; thence through the faid lake to the most north-western point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Miffiffippi; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the faid river Miffiffippi, until it fhall interfect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude: fouth, by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line laft mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees north of the equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola, or Catahouche; thence along the middle thereof, to its junction with the Flint River; thence ftrait to the head of St. Mary's River, and thence down along the middle of St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean; eaft, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth to the bay of Fundy, to its

fource;

fource; and from its fource directly north to the faid highlands, which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean, from those which fall into the river St. Lawrence; comprehending all iflands within twenty leagues of any part of the fhores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due eaft from the points where the faid boundaries between Nova Scotia, on the one part, and Eaft Florida on the other, fhall refpectively touch the Bay of Fundy, and the Atlantic Ocean; except fuch iflands as now are, or heretofore have been within the limits of the faid province of Nova Scotia."

It was ftipulated that the people of the United States fhould continue to enjoy without moleftation, the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; and that they fhould likewife exercife and continue the fame privilege in the gulf of St. Lawrence, and at every other place in the fea, where the inhabitants ufed heretofore to fih, The inhabitants of the United States were likewife to have the liberty to take fish of every kind on fuch part of the coast of Newfoundland, as British feamen fhall refort to; but not to cure or dry them on that ifland. They were alfo to poffefs the privilege of fishing on the coafts, bays, and creeks of all the other dominions of his Britannic majesty in America; and the American fishermen were permitted to cure and dry fish in any of the unfettled bays, harbours, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Iflands, and Labrador. But it was agreed, that after fuch places fhould be fettled, this right could not be legally put in practice without the confent of the inhabitants and proprietors of the ground. It was accorded,

that creditors upon either fide fhould meet with no impediment in the profecution of their claims. It was contracted that the congrefs fhould earnestly recommend it to the legiflatures of the respective states, to provide for the reftitution of all eftates and properties which had been confifcated, belonging to real Britifh fubjects, and of the eftates and properties of perfons refident in diftricts in the poffeffion of his majesty's arms, and who had not borne arms against the United States. It was refolved, that perfons of any other defcription fhould have free liberty to go to any part whatfoever, of any of the thirteen United States, and remain in it for twelve months unmolefted in their endeavours to recover fuch of their eftates, rights, and properties as may not have been confifcated; and it was concerted that the congrefs fhould earnestly recommend to the feveral states a revifion of all acts or laws regarding the premises, fo as to render them perfectly confiftent, not only with juftice and equity, but with that fpirit of conciliation, which, on the returning of the bleffings of peace, fhould univerfally prevail. It was understood, that no future confifcations fhould be made, nor profecutions commenced against any perfon, or body of men, on account of the part which he or they had taken in the prefent war; and that those who may be in confinement on fuch a charge, at the time of the ratification of the treaty in America, should be immediately fet at liberty. It was concluded that there fhould be a firm and perpetual peace, between his Britannic majefty and the United States; that all hoftilities by fea and land fhould immediately ceafe; and that prifoners on both fides fhould be fet at liberty. It was determined that his Britannic majesty

fhould

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