DOCUMENTS BEABING ON TREATY OP 1*783. 216 



an act by no means relished in America : instead, therefore, of advert- 

 ing to that line, or the line described by proclamation, it had been 

 thought better to fix a new boundary, fair, just, and liberal, and such 

 as the Americans themselves approved. With regard to the fur 

 trade, and all the arguments built upon that subject, interested indi- 

 viduals might at first raise a clamour, but in great national transac- 

 tions, the public good must be the predominant object; nor 

 129 was the trade so much injured, as some people would have the 

 public to believe ; enough of Canada was still left for the carry- 

 ing on of that trade ; and he ever understood it to be a general maxim, 

 that, in proportion as fruits were better, the farther south they grew, 

 so furs were the best which came from countries the most northern. 

 The noble Lord who had complained of not having sufficient informa- 

 tion upon the subject, to give a vote for the address, had, nevertheless, 

 with a wonderful degree of circumstantial detail, adverted to every 

 matter stated in each of the treaties, and among other things he had 

 spent a great deal of time, in describing the various forts that had 

 been buut in North America, and the great expense their erection 

 had cost this country, which were all by the new boundaries ceded to 

 America. The building of these forts at such an enormous expense, 

 had been one of the great follies and profusions of the public money, 

 that had distinguished the administration of the noble Lord. Many 

 of the forts were built in the best manner at an immense expense to 

 the nation, when mere blockhouses, or abatis would have answered 

 the purpose as well, and not have cost one half the money. With 

 respect to one of them (Detroit) if a fort was necessary there, a new 

 one might easily be erected on the other side of the water, and at a 

 small expense. He said, that the article respecting the loyalists, gave 

 him as much concern as it could do any other gentleman ; but it had 

 been impossible to avoid it, the commissioners on the part of America 

 having again and again declared, that they were instructed to insist 

 on it: if the British commissioners, therefore, had refused to accede 

 to it, the treaty must have been broken off, and much time would 

 have been lost. He was ready to admit, that many of the loyalists 

 had the strongest claims upon this country; and he trusted, should 

 the recommendation of Congress to the American States prove unsuc- 

 cessful, this country would feel itself bound in honour to make them 

 full compensation for their losses. The noble Lord had complained 

 principally of the exception that was made in the article, which 

 excluded those who had borne arms from the recommendation which 

 Congress engaged itself to make. Undoubtedly, this exception was 

 much to be lamented ; but would the noble Lord, or any other Gentle- 

 man, say, that the whole of the loyalists were to be given up for a 

 part? Let them recollect, that Lord Cornwallis, in his capitulation 

 at Yorktown, had acted in a similar manner, and doubtless for similar 



reasons. 



***** 



Mr. Burke was very pleasant in his remarks on the modesty of the 

 address. At the beginning of the session Ministers had been very 

 verbose, because when men design to perform little, they promise a 

 great deal. Now that Ministers had given away to the enemies of 



Mr. Townshend, In conjunction with Lord Shelburne, had bad the conduct of 



the negotiations. 



