DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OF 1783. 61 



very important news of this day, upon which Mr. Fox begs leave to 

 take this opportunity of congratulating your Majesty; but, in gen- 

 eral, Mr. Fox thinks it his duty to submit it to your Majesty, that 

 your Majesty's servants have proceeded upon this occasion rather 

 upon the supposition that the present negotiation for peace will fail, 

 and that the measures which they humbly recommend to your Maj- 

 esty upon this occasion are directed more with a view to the use 

 which may be made of them, for the purposes of detaching from 

 France her present allies, and of conciliating the powers of Europe 

 to this country, than to the object of success in the present treaty 

 with the Court of Versailles. If Monsieur de Vergennes should reject 

 Mr. Grenville's proposals, and should either decline making any on 

 his part, or make such as should be evidently inadmissible, your 

 Majesty's servants cannot help flattering themselves that such a con- 

 duct, on the part of the Court of Versailles, may produce the most 

 salutary effects with regard both to Europe and to America, and 

 possibly to the exertions of Great Britain herself. 



No 28178%, May 23: British Cabinet Minute. 



CLARGES STREET, May 23rd, 1782. 



Present Lord Chancellor, Lord Privy Seal, Lord Rockingham, 

 Lord Shelburne, Lord John Cavendish, Lord Keppel, Lord Ash- 

 burton, General Conway, Mr. Fox. 



It is humbly recommended to your Majesty to direct Mr. Fox to 

 instruct Mr. Grenville to propose the independency of America in 

 the first instance, instead of making it a condition of a general treaty. 



No. 29. 1782, May 26; Letter, Mr. Fox to Mr. Grenville. 



ST. JAMES 26th May 1782 



SIR : I had the honour of laying your letter of the 14th instant be- 

 fore the King. His Majesty was pleased to refer it to the considera- 

 tion of his confidential servants and in consequence of their advice has 

 commanded me to signify to you his pleasure that you should lose no 

 time in making all the advantage possible of the concession which 

 His Majesty has from his ardent desire of peace been induced to make 

 with respect to the Independency of the thirteen States ; and in order 

 to this end I have it in command from His Majesty, to authorize you 

 to make the offer of the said Independency in the first instance of 

 making it a conditional article of a general treaty. I need not point 

 out to you the use that may be made of this method of commencing 

 the business, as you seem to have a very just idea of the advantages 

 that may be derived from it. The principal one appears to me to be 

 this: that the American agents must clearly perceive if there should 

 now be any obstacle to the recognition which they have so much at 

 heart, and which after all must be a matter infinitely interesting to 

 them that the difficulty comes from the Court of Versailles and not 

 from hence, and that it is chiefly owing to the number of allies with 



