148 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



The Count informed us he had delayed doing business with Mr. 

 Fitzherbert until we should be ready to proceed with Mr. Oswald, 

 and that he expected to see him the next day or the day after. 



Mr. Fitzherbert went the next day to Versailles, and immediately 

 dispatched a courier to London. 



The answer of the British ministry to Mr. Oswald is contained in 

 the following extract of a letter to him from Mr. Townshend, dated 

 Whitehall, September 1, 1782 : 



SIR, I have received and laid before the King your letters of the 17th, 18th, 

 and 21st ultimo, and I am commanded to signify to you his majesty's approba- 

 tion of your conduct in communicating to the American commissioners the 

 fourth article of your instructions, which could not but convince them that the 

 negotiation for peace and the cession of independence to the thirteen United 

 Colonies were intended to be carried on and concluded with the commissioners 

 in Europe. 



Those gentlemen having expressed their satisfaction concerning that article, 

 it is hoped that they will not entertain a doubt of his majesty's determination 

 to exercise in the fullest extent the powers with which the act of Parliament 

 has invested him, by granting to America full, complete, and unconditional 

 independence in the most explicit manner, as an article of treaty. 



When Mr. Oswald communicated this letter to me I did not hesi- 

 tate to tell him that his court was misled by this, for that the lan- 

 guage of Mr. Townshend corresponded so exactly with that of the 

 Count de Vergennes, and was at the same time so contrary to that 

 of the instructions to Sir Guy Carlton, as to be inexplicable on any 

 other principle. I also told him I suspected that the courier de- 

 spatched by Mr. Fitzherbert on his return from Versailles had been 

 the means of infusing these ideas. He smiled, and after a little 

 pause said, why, Count de Vergennes told Mr. Fitzherbert that my 

 commission was come, and that he thought it would do, and therefore 

 they might now go on, and accordingly they did go on to discuss 

 certain points, and particularly that of Newfoundland. 



Mr. Oswald did not deny or contradict the inference I drew from 

 this, viz., that Mr. Fitzherbert, struck by this conduct of Count de 

 Vergennes, and finding that the commisison given to Mr. Oswald 

 was deemed sufficient by him, thought it his duty directly to inform 

 his court of it, and thereby prevent their being embarrassed by our 

 scruples and demands on a point on which there was so much reason 

 to think that our allies were very moderate. 



For my own part I was not only persuaded that this was the case, 

 but also that the ill-success of Mr. Oswald's application was owing 

 to it. 



These considerations induced me to explain to him what I sup- 

 posed to be the natural policy of this court on* the subject, and to 

 show him that it was the interest of Britain to render us an inde- 

 pendent on France as we were resolved to be on her. He soon adopted 

 the same opinion, but was at a loss to see in what manner Great 

 Britain, considering what had just passed, could consistently take 

 further steps at present. I told him that nothing was more easy, for 

 that the issuing of another commission would do it. He asked 

 90 me if he might write that to the Ministry; I told him he 

 might; he then desired, in order to avoid mistakes, that I would 

 give it to him in writing, which I did as follows, viz. : 



A commission (in the usual form) to Richard Oswald to treat of peace or 

 truce with commissioners, vested with equal powers by and on the part of the 



