66 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



I would not state them as propositions from him, but as being my 

 own ideas of what would be useful to both countries. (I interrupt 

 myself here, to remind you of the obligation I must put you under 

 not to mention this.) For this very interesting communication, 

 which I had long laboured to get, he fixed the fourth day, which 

 was last Saturday; but on Friday morning Mr. Oswald came, and 

 having given me your letters, he went immediately to Franklin, to 

 carry some to him. I kept my appointment at Passy the next morn- 

 ing, and in order to give Franklin the greatest confidence, at the 

 same time, too, not knowing how much Mr. Oswald might have told 

 him, I began with saying, that though under the difficulty which 

 M. de Vergennes and he himself had made to my full power, it was 

 not the moment, as a politician perhaps, to make further explana- 

 tions till that difficulty should be relieved, yet to show him the confi- 

 dence I put in him, I would begin by telling him, that I was author- 

 ised to offer the independence in the first instance, instead of making 

 it an article of general treaty. He expressed great satisfaction at 

 this, especially he said, because, by having done otherwise, we should 

 have seemed to have considered America, as in the same degree of 

 connection with France, which she had been under with us, whereas 

 America wished to be considered as a power free and clear to all the 

 world; but when I came to lead the discourse to the subject which 

 he had promised four days before, I was a good deal mortified to 

 find him put it off altogether till he should be more ready, and not- 

 withstanding my reminding him of his promise, he only answered 

 that it should be in some days. What passed between Mr. Oswald 

 and me will explain to you the reason of this disappointment. Mr. 

 Oswald told me that Lord Shelburne had proposed to him, when last 

 in England, to take a commission to treat with the American Min- 

 isters; that upon his mentioning it to Franklin now, it seemed per- 

 fectly agreeable to him, and even to be what he had very much 

 wished, Mr. Oswald adding that he wished- only to assist the' busi- 

 ness, and had no other view; he mixed with this a few regrets that 

 there should be any difference between the two offices, and when I 

 asked upon what subject, he said owing to the Rockingham party 

 being too ready to give up everything. You will observe though 

 for it is on that account that I give you this narrative that this in- 

 tended appointment has effectually stopped Franklin's mouth to me, 

 and that when he is told that Mr. Oswald is to be the Commissioner 

 to treat with him, it is but natural that he should reserve his confi- 

 dence for the quarter so pointed out to him ; nor does this secret seem 

 only known to Franklin, as Lafayette said laughingly yesterday, that 

 he had just left Lord Shelburne's ambassador at Passy. Indeed this 

 is not the first moment of a separate negotiation, for Mr. Oswald, 

 suspecting by something that I dropped that Franklin had talked 

 to me about Canada (though, by the by, he never had) told me this 

 circumstance as follows: When he went to England the last time 

 but one, he carried with him a paper entrusted to him by Franklin 

 under condition that it should be shown only to Lord Shelburne and 

 returned into his own hands at Passy. This paper, under the title of 

 " Notes of a Conversation," contained an idea of Canada being spon- 

 taneously ceded by England to the thirteen provinces, in order that 

 Congress might sell the unappropriated lands and make a fund 

 thereby, in order to compensate the damages done by the English 



