6 A. D. 1783. 



funding to the poflelTors of their eftates the bona-fide price (where any 

 may have been given) which they may have paid for fuch lands. 



6) It was declared, that no further confiications fhould be made, or 

 profecutions commenced againft any peri'on for the part taken by him 

 in the war, and that thofe, who were in confinement on fuch charges, 

 fhould be let at liberty. 



7) The Britifli forces were with all convenient fpeed to evacuate 

 every port, place, and harbour, within the territories of the United 

 ftates, without deftroying or carrying off any property of the American 

 inhabitants. 



8) The navigation of the Mifliilippi, from its fource to the Ocean, 

 was declared to be free and open to the fubjeds of Great Britain and the 

 citizens of the United ftates *. 



Thus w^as a period put to the flaughiters and the defolations of war : 

 thus were the enemies of Great Britain gratified with the accomplifh- 

 ment of their defires, the difmemberraent of the Britilh empire : and 

 thus was Britain relieved from the bunhen of the greateft part of her 

 American colonies. 



The tenns of the pacification were, as ufual, cenfured in parliament 

 by thofe, who were not admitted to have any hand in it, and defended 

 by the miniftry. The treatment of the loyalifts of America, who were 

 left to the generofity, or m.ercy, of the feveral flates, and the abandon- 

 ment of the Indians, hitherto accuftomed to look up to Britain as the 

 greateft power upon earth, were loudly execrated. The boundaries of 

 the United ftates with the provinces of C)uebec and Nova Scotia were 

 faid to be fo fettled, that the forts and paffes, neceffary for fecuring the 

 fur trade, were unnecefTarily given away. The navigation of the Mif- 

 fiffippi, referved to us by the treaty, was reprefented, as ufelefs and 

 abortive f. The ceflion of Florida, the reftitution of S'. Lucia, and, iij 

 ihort, every fingle article in favour of the other powers in any quarter 

 of the globe, were feverely reprehended ; as if we had had it in our own 

 power to recover all our lofTes in the war, and alfo to retain all our con- 

 quefts. Dunkirk, that old bone of contention, was now reprefented as 

 a port of the greateft confequence, capable of containing twenty or 

 thirty fhips of a formidable fize, of deftroying our commerce, of con- 

 trolling England in the Channel, and of attacking her in the very 

 mouth of the Thames. 



In defence of the peace the minifters obferved, that the loyalifts 

 might be rendered eafy and comfortable without any wafte of blood, 

 and at a trifling expenfe, if they fhould not be received into the bofom 



* The definitive treaties were figned at Paris the mouth of the river, the pafTage of any veflel, 



sn the 3'* of September. belonging to either of them, to or from the fea 



^ It mufl certainly be acknowleged, that, as muft depend on the pleafure of the power, in whofe 



neither Great Britain nor the United Hates poflefs dominions the entry of it lies. 



