This

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 des patched 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. 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 serve to convince Mr. Oswald, and the mutual advantages which would obviously result from treating separately with the United States, as indepen

dent.

Lord Shelburne, whose system of politicks, as has been seen, had yielded to necessity, and who no lon ger 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 im mediately 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

sion. Their talents, their indefatigable zeal and vigilance, their strenuous exertions and devoted attachment to the interests of their country, enabled them to discover and counteract the intrigues and diplomatick finesse of older negotiators; and though Congress had evinced a want of confidence in their discretion, by placing them under the guidance of the French court, the firmness and address with which they acted throughout the whole of the arduous business of negotiation, showed that while they were claiming independence for their country, they knew how to enjoy its rights and privileges in themselves.

The definitive treaty of peace and friendship between his Brittanick Majesty, and the United States, was signed at Versailles on the 3d of September, 1783, by the respective plenipotentiaries; and on the same day at Versailles, the definitive treaties between Great Britain, France and Spain were also concluded and signed. A cessation of hostilities had taken place between Great Britain and the United Provinces of Holland, when the preliminary articles were signed between the other powers of Europe, but their provisional treaty was not concluded until the 24 of September, nor finally ratified until some months after the perfect restoration of peace.

Although as we have just seen, the definitive treaty between Great Britain and the United States, was not signed until September, there had been no act of hostility between the two armies, and a state of peace had actually existed, from the commencement of the year 1783. A formal proclamation of the cessation of hostilities was made throughout the army on the 19th of April; but some time before this period, mischievous attempts had been made by anon