DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OP 1783. 103 



will not entertain a doubt of His Majesty's determination to exercise, 

 in the fullest extent, the powers with which the Act of Parliament 

 hath invested him, by granting to America full, complete, and un- 

 conditional independence, in the most explicit manner, as an article 

 of treaty. But you are, at the same time, to represent to them, if 

 necessary, that the King is not enabled by that Act to cede inde- 

 pendence, unconnected with a truce, or treaty of peace, and that 

 therefore the cession of independence cannot stand as a single sepa- 

 rate article, to be ratified by itself; but may be, (and His Majesty is 

 willing shall be) the first article of the treaty, unconditionally of any 

 compensation or equivalent to be thereafter required in the said 

 treaty. You will observe that the very article of your instructions 

 referred to, is conformable to this idea, as it is expressly mentioned 

 to be offered by His Majesty as the price of peace; and that inde- 

 pendence declared and ratified absolutely and irrevocably, and not 

 depending upon the event of concluding an entire treaty, might in 

 the end prove a treaty for the purpose of independence alone, and 

 not for a peace or truce, to which objects all the powers of the Act 

 refer. 



I should think it unnecessary here to advert to the treaty of 1607 

 between the Court of Spain and the United Provinces, were it not 

 that you represent Mr. Jay as having quoted the conduct of the 

 Dutch upon that occasion by way of precedent. If you look into the 

 Corps Diplomatique, and other books upon the subject, you will see 

 this gentleman is mistaken in his opinion. 



******* 



If the American Commissioners are, as His Majesty is, sincerely 

 disposed to a speedy termination of the calamities of war, it is not 

 to be conceived that they will be inclined to delay, and to embarrass 

 the negotiations, by refusing to accept the independence, as an article 

 of the treaty, which by that means may be secured to them fully and 

 completely, so as to leave no possible ground of jealousy or suspicion. 



But in order to give the most unequivocal proof of the King's 

 earnest wish to remove every impediment, I am commanded to sig- 

 nify to you His Majesty's disposition, (upon the unanimous advice 

 of all his Ministers) to agree to the plan of pacification proposed by 

 Dr. Franklin himself, including, as it does, the great point in ques- 

 tion as part of the 1st article. 



The articles, as specified by Dr. Franklin to you, and recited in 

 your letter to the Earl of Shelburne of the 10th July last, are as 

 follows : 



1. Of the first class, necessary to be granted, independence, full and 

 complete, in every sense, to the thirteen States, and all the troops to 

 be withdrawn from thence. 



2. A settlement of the boundaries of their colonies and the loyal 

 colonies. 



3. A confinement of the boundaries of Canada, at least to what they 

 were before the last Act of Parliament, you think in 1774, if not to 

 a still more contracted state, on an ancient footing. 



4. A freedom of fishing on the banks of Newrowidland and else- 

 where, as well for fish as whales. 



These articles were stated by you, as all that Dr. Franklin thought 

 necessary; and His Majesty trusting that they were suggested with 



