several states to exclude by law all subjects of his Britannick Majesty from their respective limits during the war. Sir Guy Carleton was compelled, therefore, to abandon all hope of effecting the object of the ministry, by drawing the Congress into a separate discussion.

Congress could not have given a stronger proof of good faith to their allies, than in thus refusing all overtures from Great Britain at such a moment. They were almost without an army; the loan from Holland had not been received; the minister of finance was exhausted, and had stretched his credit to its utmost point; the patience both of officers and soldiers was nearly spent; and money was at an interest of 5 per cent a month. The important posts of the North River lay at the mercy of the enemy, and discontents every where prevailed to the most alarming degree. The idea of carrying on the war under such circumstances, when peace could be obtained upon terms which promised to secure all the objects of the war, evinced a chivalrick fidelity to their French allies, which Congress had seldom thought it necessary to observe to their immediate constituents. It is doubtful, however, whether this spirit could have outlasted another campaign, unless some extraordinary means had been devised to bring the resources of the country into more active operation. The new bank which was opened on the first of the year, had indeed afforded some facilities to our minister of finance, and enabled him for a time to support the publick credit by anticipating the taxes; but the states, so long as they saw any other means of raising money, failed to levy or collect their taxes, and at the end of three months, the bank was as unwilling to extend their

credit to the United States, as individuals had been, and Mr. Morris found himself again called upon to provide for a three month's expenditure, without a dollar in his hands, or credit to that amount. It is true, the generosity of our ally had allowed us a monthly grant of 500,000 livres tournois; but this sum was but half sufficient for the current expenses, and it was absolutely essential to provide for heavy arrearages.

In this critical situation, the refusal of Congress to listen to any separate overtures for peace, which would at once have relieved them from the heaviest of their difficulties, their scrupulous observance of a national contract, at the expense of national interest and advantage, may be regarded as a singular instance of good faith. Happily this good faith was not put to the test of another struggle; for Sir Guy Carleton was soon authorised to announce to Washington, that the negotiations for a general peace had already commenced at Paris, and that preparations were making in England for an immediate and general exchange of prisoners. This intelligence was soon followed by the arrival of three transports with a large body of the prisoners themselves, and it became no longer a matter of doubt that peace was at hand.

The commissioners at Paris, of whom, on the part of the United States, Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay only had met, were in the mean time proceeding but slowly in the great work of pacification. Two difficulties occurred in the outset, which seemed to threaten a rupture of the negotiations. Though the Spanish Governour of Louisiana had publickly recognised the independence of the United States so early as Au63

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gust 1779, at New Orleans, no formal acknowledgement of it had been made by the court of Spain, with whom all Mr. Jay's efforts to negotiate a treaty of amity and alliance, had proved fruitless. Under these circumstances, Mr. Jay thought himself justifiable in declining to act with the Count de Aranda, the Spanish ambassadour, unless that minister would agree to an exchange of commissions. On the other hand, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner appointed to treat with the Americans, was not authorised to acknowledge their independence in the first instance, but merely to make it the subject of a provisional article of the treaty. To this Mr. Jay objected, on the ground that as the United States must necessarily continue annexed to France by the treaty, and be compelled to fight her battles, and promote her views, no peace could be accomplished, until their independence was acknowledged, and that this acknowledgement therefore, must be a preliminary to negotiations for a peace. The French minister, on the contrary, by whose advice and opinion" the American commissioners were instructed ultimately to govern themselves, thought the provisional acknowledgement quite sufficient, and consequently that the powers of Mr. Oswald embraced all that was necessary. Dr. Franklin, and the Spanish ambassadour agreed with the Count de Vergennes, but Mr. Jay persisted in his objections, in which he was so far countenanced by Mr. Adams, that he refused to leave Holland, and join in the negotiation, until new powers should be given to Mr. Oswald.

In this state of mutual misunderstanding, affairs remained for several months, until Mr. Jay succeeded in convincing Mr. Oswald himself of the validity of

This

his objections, and of gaining over his colleague, Dr. Franklin, to his views. The French and Spanish ministers, in the mean time, perplexed at the obstinacy of the American commissioner, secretly despatched a confidential messenger to England, with the view, as it was suspected, of obtaining a private audience of Lord Shelburne, before the application for a new commission could be made to him. business, however, was not conducted in so secret a manner, but that Mr. Jay received intelligence of it, in time to counteract the effect of any overtures that it might be intended to make to the British minister, by explaining to his lordship the reasoning which had served to convince Mr. Oswald, and the mutual advantages which would obviously result from treating separately with the United States, as indepen

dent.

Lord Shelburne, whose system of politicks, as has been seen, had yielded to necessity, and who no longer entertained even a remote hope that any thing could be gained by still refusing to acknowledge the independence of the United States, readily listened to the communications of Mr. Jay, and a new commission was immediately issued, not only empowering Mr. Oswald to make the required acknowledgement, but authorising him to treat separately with the commissioners of the United States. This was the great object at which the American commissioners aimed; as by this, they were enabled to insist upon their right to an equal participation of the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, from which they believed it to be no less the wish of France than of England, to exclude them.

Mr. Adams left Holland, as soon as he heard of this new arrangement, and arrived in Paris towards the latter end of October. The negotiation was immediately opened, and contrary to the express instructions of Congress, not only without the advice and approbation of the French minister, but without his privity. Mr. Oswald for some time strenuously contended against the right of the Americans to the fisheries; but the eloquence of the American negotiators upon a subject in which their constituents were so nearly concerned, was at length irresistible, and this point being reluctantly yielded, provisional articles were soon after agreed upon and signed on the 30th of November, subject to future ratification, when the terms of a general peace should be finally settled with France.