DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OF 1783. 91 



tion from the Act of Parliament in the Commission he supposed it 

 was meant, that independence was to be treated upon, and was to be 

 granted perhaps as the price of peace. That it ought to be no part 

 of a treaty. It ought to have been expressly granted by Act of 

 Parliament; and an order for all troops to be withdrawn; previous 

 to any proposal for treaty. As that was not done, the King, he said, 

 ought to do it now by proclamation, and order all garrisons to be 

 evacuated; and then close the American war by a treaty. He said 

 many things of a retrospective kind, such as the happy effects a decla- 

 ration of that nature at earlier periods would have produced; if 

 Great Britain had handsomely, & nobly made this grant before such 

 deep wounds had been given to that bias and attachment, which till 

 then subsisted all over that country in favour of Great Britain even 

 in spite of their petitions being repeatedly rejected. That in such 

 case they would undoubtedly have concerted such plan of treaty, as 

 would have not only restored peace; but would have laid a solid 

 bottom of amity and conciliation, and such as would have obliterated 

 from their memorA^ in a short time all remembrance of preceding acts 

 of distress and violence. 



But by the continued enforcement of the same cruel measures the 

 minds of the people in general all over that continent were almost 

 totally alienated from Great Britain so that they detested the very 

 name of an Englishman. 



That it was true a number of the older people had not forgot their 

 former connections; & their inclinations might still lean towards 

 England. But when they were gone, & the younger generation came 

 to take their place, who had never felt any of those impressions, those 

 inclinations would be succeeded by a grudge and resentment of every 

 kind, upon reflecting on what they had seen & their parents had suf- 

 fered ; that few of them but could recollect the loss of blood of some 

 relation or other, devastation of their estates, & other misfortunes. 



On which occasion he ran into a detail of particulars, as unneces- 

 sary as unpleasant here to be repeated, and which I would not have 

 touched upon, if I did not think that a free exposure of the features of 

 this conversation may help to form a judgment of what may be ex- 

 pected in the issue, from the determination of this commissioner, and 

 consequently what concessions on this very critical occasion it may be 

 safe and proper to propose or insist upon. 



******* 



But the great point was to make such a peace as should be 



lasting. 



56 This brought back my attention to the same expression in 



Monsr. de Vergennes's discourse in April, when I first had the 

 honour of waiting on him, and the more so, that almost in every con- 

 versation I have had with Dr. Franklin, he has made use of the same 

 words, & delivered as in the way aphorism, and as an indispensable 

 principle in the foundation of a final settlement with them and 

 France. 



I never at these times chose to ask for an explanation, having no 

 right to do so; I thought it was then too early to venture on such 

 delicate ground ; and so I remained at a loss as to the intended mean- 

 ing of the words, although I strongly suspected the expression 

 pointed at some unpleasant or unfavourable limitations on the con- 

 duct of Great Britain. 



