DOCUMENTS BEAKING ON TBEATY OF 1783. 201 



121 a sufficient security for these unhappy men. For his own part, 

 so far from believing that this would be sufficient, or anything 

 like sufficient for their protection, he was of a direct contrary opinion ; 

 and if they entertained any notions of this sort, he would put an end 

 to their idle hopes at once, by reading from a paper in his pocket a 

 resolution which the Assembly of Virginia had come to, so late as on 

 the 17th of December last. The resolution was as follows : 



That the laws of the State confiscating property held under the laws of the 

 former Government, (which had been dissolved and made void) by those who 

 have never been admitted into the present social compact, being founded on 

 legal principles, were strongly dictated by that principle of common justice, de- 

 mand that, if virtuous citizens, in defence of the natural and constitutional 

 rights, risk their life, liberty, and property on their success, the vicious citizens 

 who side with tyranny and oppression, or who cloak themselves under the mask 

 of neutrality, should at least hazard their property, and not enjoy the benefits 

 procured by the labours and dangers of those whose destructions they wished. 

 That all demands or requests of the British court, for the restitution of 

 property confiscated by this State, being neither supported by law, equity, or 

 policy, are wholly inadmissible; and that our delegates in Congress be in- 

 structed to move Congress, that they may direct their deputies, who shall 

 represent these States in the general Congress for adjusting a peace or truce, 

 neither to agree to any such restitution, or submit that the laws made by any 

 independent State of this urrion be subjected to the adjudication of any power 

 or powers on earth. 



His Lordship demanded what Ministers had to say now for this 

 boasted recommendation, for which they had stipulated with Con- 

 gress? Could they say, that the unhappy men who had fought and 

 bled for this country, who had given up their all and the all of their 

 little families; could Ministers say that these men who had said and 

 done and suffered all that was in the power of human nature for our 

 cause, ought not to have had a better security than the present, from 

 scorn, insolence, and ruin? A peace founded on such a sacrifice as 

 this, must be accursed in the sight of God and man. His Lordship 

 added a few words of animadversion on other parts of the treaty. All 

 the forts were on the American side ; the immense district of country 

 which supplied us with masts was gone; the Indian nations were 

 abandoned; and we were insulted with the navigation of the Missis- 

 sippi, when all its benefits were taken away. He then concluded with 

 giving his hearty approbation to the amendment. 



******* 



The Earl of Shelburne .... 



Ministry, in the first place, is blamed for drawing the boundary 

 they have done between the territories of the United States and those 

 of our Sovereign in Canada. I wish to examine every part of the 

 treaties on the fair rule of the value of the district ceded to ex- 

 amine it on the amount of the exports and imports, by which alone 

 we could judge of its importance. The exports of this country to 

 Canada, then, were only 140,OOOZ. and the imports were no more than 

 50,000?. Suppose the entire fur trade sunk into the sea, where is the 

 detriment to this country ? Is 50,0001. a year imported in that article 

 any object for Great Britain to continue a war of which the people of 

 England by their representatives, have declared their abhorrence? 

 Surely it is not. But much less must this appear in our sight, when 

 I tell Parliament, and the whole kingdom, that for many years past, 

 one year with another, the preservation of this annual import of 



