108 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



no doubt with a view of agreeing upon an expedient for removing 

 those obstacles to their proceeding, as hinted at in the doctor's letter 

 to me. 



At noon, and since writing the above, Mr. Jay called, and told me 

 that, upon further consultation and consideration of the matter, it 

 was thought advisable not to press upon His Majesty's Ministers 

 those arguments which he proposed to make use of in the letter he 

 intended to write me, (and which it was understood I might send 

 home) as considering it somewhat more than indelicate for them to 

 pretend to see more clearly than the King's Ministers might do, the 

 expediency, if not the necessity, at this critical time, to decide with 

 precision and despatch, upon every measure that can be reasonably 

 taken, for extricating Great Britain from out of the present em- 

 barrassing situation in which her affairs may continue to be involved, 

 while there remains any hesitation in coming to an agreement with 

 the States of America. 



I liked the scroll of the letter so much when it was read to me 

 yesterday that I was sorry it was withheld; I even pressed to be 

 entrusted with it, in gratification of my own private wish that the 

 writer of it might receive from good men, that share of applause 

 that is due to those who wish well to the peace of mankind in gen- 

 eral, and who seem not to be desirous of expunging altogether from 

 their breast the impressions which had been fixed there by those 

 habits and natural feelings by which individuals are tied in attach- 

 ment to particular combinations of society and country. But I could 

 not prevail, and was obliged to be contented with a recommendation 

 to say that what I thought proper in my own way. 



Finding it so, there remained for me, only to ask a single and final 

 question of Mr. Jay. Whether in this, his last conference with Dr. 

 Franklin this morning (for he was just then come in from him) it 

 was settled between them, that upon my receiving from His Majesty 

 a new commission under the Great Seal, such as the last, with an alter- 

 ation only as before mentioned, of my being empowered to treat with 

 them as Commissioners of the thirteen United States of America, 

 naming the said States by their several provincial distinctions, as 

 usual. I said whether, in that case, they would be satisfied to go on 

 with the treaty and without any other declaration of independence, 

 than as standing as an article or that treaty. 



Mr. Jay's answer was, that with this they would be satisfied, and 

 that immediately upon such commission coming over, they would pro- 

 ceed in the treaty; and, more than that, said they would not be long 

 about it; and perhaps would not be over hard upon us in the con- 

 ditions. 



Having stated these conversations and other circumstances as they 

 actually passed, to the best of my remembrance, it would not become 

 me to go further by giving any opinion as to the measures proper to 

 be taken in consequence thereof. Yet, Sir, I hope you will excuse 

 me, and I think it my duty to say this much, that, by what I have been 

 able to learn of the sentiments of the American Commissioners, in 

 case the compromise now proposed (which with great difficulty they 

 have been persuaded to agree to) is refused, there will be an end to 

 all further confidence and communication with them, the consequences 

 of which I will not presume to touch upon, either as regarding Amer- 

 ican or foreign affairs. On the other hand, if the expedient of a new 



