DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OF 1783. 183 



Commissioners might have been inclined to pay some con- 

 sideration for what we call OUT grant of, and they our 

 acquiescence in, American Independency. But I likewise appre- 

 hend that this consideration would have consisted partly in a more 

 favourable boundary to the province of Canada, and partly in some 

 more indulgence to the unfortunate loyalists, and not in any relaxa- 

 tion with regard to the fishery, Mr. Adams having declared through- 

 out that it was absolutely impossible for him both on account of his 

 positive instructions, and on account of the ideas which he knew were 

 entertained in his province, to consent to that article under any other 

 form but that which it at present wears. I cannot help saying one 

 word more upon this last subject which is, that upon our urging, 

 amongst other arguments, for secluding America from the coast- 

 fishery, that if she were admitted to it, it would prove an endless 

 source of disputes to the two nations, they held on the contrary that 

 it would become a most powerful bond of connexion to unite us, and 

 supported this doctrine by many plausible inductions of rea- 

 soning 



The EARL or SHELBURNE 



&c &c &c. 



No. 115. 178%, December 4' Letter, Comte de Vergennes to M. de 



Rayneval. 



VERSAILLES, December 4, 1782. 



You had no idea, Monsieur, when you left this place, that the 

 negotiation of the Americans was at the point of conclusion. I 

 received the next morning a note from M. Franklin announcing that 

 all was agreed upon, and was about to be signed. In fact the pre- 

 liminary articles were signed that day on one side by Mr. Oswald, 

 and on the other by the four American plenipotentiaries. 



The translation of those preliminaries, which I here enclose, re- 

 lieves me from the necessity of entering into any details of their 

 contents. You will notice that the English buy the peace more 

 than they make it. Their concessions, in fact, as much as to the 

 boundaries as to the fisheries and the loyalists, exceed all that I 

 should have thought possible. What can be the motive, that could 

 have brought terms so easy, that they could have been interpreted 

 as a kind of surrender? You are in a better way to discover than 

 1, but what I can not help observing, and what I pointed out to 

 M. Franklin, is that notwithstanding the reservation in these pre- 

 liminary articles, that they are not to take effect till terms of peace 

 are settled between England and France, yet their signature is none 

 the less premature. 



If love of peace has torn from the English Ministers the sacrifices 

 that they so generously make to America, I must believe that that 

 sentiment extending itself to all the objects of the war, the conditions 

 of which you were bearer, must have been favorably received. May 

 you be able to confirm us in this view. The news will be better 

 received here than at Madrid, where, according to all our ideas, the 

 cession of Minorca will cause extreme displeasure. 



