DOCUMENTS BEAEING ON TREATY OF 1783. 71 



ably expect honest men to be. We are now perfectly resolved to come 

 to an explanation upon the business, if it is possible so to do without 

 betraying any confidence reposed in me by you, or in you by others. 

 The two principal points which occur are the paper relative to Can- 

 ada, of which I had never heard till I received your letter, and the 

 intended investment of Mr. Oswald with full p6wers, which was cer- 

 tainly meant for the purpose of diverting Franklin's confidence from 

 you into another channel. With these two points we wish to charge 

 Shelburne directly; but pressing as the thing is, and interesting as 

 it is both to our situations and to the affairs of the public, which I 

 fear are irretrievably injured by this intrigue, and which must be 

 ruined if it is suffered to go on, we are resolved not to stir a step till 

 we hear again from you, and know precisely how far we are at lib- 

 erty to make use of what you have discovered. If this matter should 

 produce a rupture, and consequently become more or less the subject 



of public discussion, I am sensible the Canada paper cannot 

 44 be mentioned by name; but might it not be said that we had 



discovered that Shelburne had withheld from our knowledge 

 matters of importance to the negotiation ? . . . 



You see what is our object, and you can easily judge what sort of 

 evidence will be most useful to us. When the object is attained, 

 that is, when the duplicity is proved, to what consequences we ought 

 to drive, whether to an absolute rupture, or merely to the recal of 

 Oswald and the simplification of this negotiation, is a point that 

 may be afterwards considered. I own I incline to the more decisive 



measure, and so, I think, do those with whom I must act in concert. 

 * * * * * * * 



The King of Prussia is certainly inclined to be our friend, but he 

 urges and presses to make peace if possible ; if we could once bring the 

 treaty to such a point as the stating the demands on each side to him, 

 and we could have his approbation for breaking it off, I think it not 

 impossible but the best consequences might follow ; and with regard to 

 North America, it is surely clear to demonstration, that it is of in- 

 finite consequence that it should be publicly understood who is to 

 blame if the war continues. I do hope, therefore, that you will at 

 all events stay long enough to make your propositions, and to call 

 upon them to make others in return. . . . 



No. 36. 1783, June 10: Extract from letter, Mr. Fox to Mr. 



Grenville. 



. . . With respect to the contents of your last dispatch, you cer- 

 tainly conceive it rightly, that you are no longer to mention the 

 Independence of America as a cession to France, or as a conditional 

 article of a general treaty ; but at the same time you will not fail to 

 observe to the French Ministry that the Independence of America is 

 proposed to be acknowledged, and to remark that this being done 

 spontaneously, which they have at different times and particularly 

 in their last answer to the Imperial Courts emphatically called the 

 object of the war, little difficulty ought to remain with regard to 

 other points which may be considered rather as collateral and in- 

 cidental than as principal in the present dispute. . . . 



