MR small's biographical SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 629 



" I also think it would have been as well if the opinions of the commissioners 

 had been communicated by letter to fewer persons here, because I think it was 

 a piece of knowledge which ought to have been withheld from the American 

 Deputies at Paris, and the Court of France. By communicating only to a few 

 proper persons, every good end of this communication might, I think, have been 

 attained without the disadvantages. I make this observation with a view to the 

 future. 



" I have some reason to think that Dr Franklin has acted a double part. 

 From some facts I have heard, I suspect, that notwithstanding his solemn pro- 

 mise to me that no use should be made of what passed between us, he did from 

 the first make use of it to urge the French Court to a further immediate treaty, 

 to be put over and to be ratified before the commissioners should arrive, from a 

 fear that the Americans would certainly accept our terms. The date of the last 

 treaty will throw light upon this, when compared with the dates of my conver- 

 sations with him. He was told of my arrival in Paris, and my errand on 

 Thursday the 11th March. I saw him first on Saturday the 13th, and again on 

 Sunday the 14th. The declaration of the French ambassador here was made 

 on Friday the 12th. I saw him again on Sunday the 29th, and Monday the 30th, 

 and for the last time on Saturday the 5th April. 



" I am informed by Andrew Stewart, that Da. Hume told him the follow- 

 ing remarkable fact: — Hume went to visit Mr Oswald of Dunnikier, then, I 

 believe, a Lord of Trade, soon after Dr Franklin came to England, which was 

 in 1758 ; and as he entered the room Dr Franklin was coming out. Hume took 

 notice that Franklin, who was just gone, was a very ingenious man. Oswald 

 said he had been with him on business relating to the Colonies, and added these 

 remarkable words, — ' He is certainly a man of genius ; but if I am not much 

 mistaken in characters, that man has more of faction in his mind than issufiicient 

 to embroil any country in the world.' " * 



The commissioners, after despatching the letters above referred to, and feeling 

 discouraged by the effects of the order for the evacuation of Philadelphia, re- 

 embarked on board the vessel which had carried them to America, and set sail 

 for New York. 



While in that city they received a communication from Congress, intimating 

 that the only ground on which they could enter on a treaty would be an acknow- 

 ledgment of the independence of the States, and the withdrawal of the British 

 force from America. 



The commissioners then issued a proclamation, calling upon all persons in 

 America to aid them in bringing the unhappy quarrel to a speedy termination. 



After some correspondence with the Congress relative to the performance of 



* MSS. University, Edinburgh. 



