1374 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



true order is: Saratoga, the 17th October, 1777; the French alliance, 

 the 8th February, 1778 ; Congress proceedings in 1779 ; Yorktown, the 

 19th October, 1781, when Cornwallis surrendered; the Committee 

 of Congress on the 8th January, 1782. And Senator Turner com- 

 pletely overlooked the tremendous change of situation brought about 

 by the defeat of the French fleet (that had done so much for the 

 Americans at Yorktown) by the British in the West Indies on the 

 12th April, 1782, and also the failure of the French and Spanish allies 

 before Gibraltar, the 13th September, 1782 two facts completely 

 altering the position as between Great Britain and her enemies, 

 because they restored to her the mistress-ship of the seas. 



Senator Turner, in the same connection, read from* Lord Shel- 

 burne's speech in the House of Lords, in which Lord Shelburne, 

 trying to defend what is said to have been the worst treaty that 

 Great Britain ever made, justified himself, so far as possible, by 

 indicating the helplessness of the British position. He was an- 

 swered, however, immediately afterwards by Admiral Keppel, 

 who until a very short time before had been his colleague in the 

 Rockingham administration. Admiral Keppel said that the British 

 fleet was in perfectly good condition, and that there were the hap- 

 piest prospects for the next campaign (British Counter-Case Ap- 

 pendix, pp. 123, 124). 



Then, if one wants to see what the position was in the United 

 States, it will be found in the British Counter-Case Appendix, at 

 pp. 30 and 31, in letters from the Secretary of State of the United 

 States, Mr. Livingstone the first of them to General Greene, and 

 the second to the Governors of the various States. The date is 

 the 31st January, 1782. Yorktown was, as I have said, the 19th 

 October, 1781. The second paragraph of the first letter reads (British 

 Counter-Case Appendix, p. 30) : 



" I wish it were in my power to tell you that our accounts from 

 Europe were proportionate to our expectations. The combined 

 fleets, as you know, have returned and separated without having 

 effected anything. The British are again masters of the ocean. 

 Gibraltar is a rock on which all the exertions of Spain seem to split, 

 and the siege of Fort St. Philip seems to be carried on in the most 

 energetic manner. We have no prospect of forming an alliance 

 either with Spain or Holland, who both appear to sigh for peace. 

 Our loan on the guarantee of France with the last is nearly com- 

 pleted. But what is not a little unsatisfactory, it is also nearly ex- 

 pended by advances which France has made us on the credit of it. 

 From Spain we are likely to get nothing. 



In his letter to the Governors, which appears below the letter from 

 which I have just read, the Secretary goes over the prospects in 

 detail, referring to his expectations from Spain as scarcely more 

 flattering than those which they had in respect -of the United 



