Digby, a commissioner to negotiate a peace, he lost no time in
conveying to General Washington copies of the votes of the British
Parliament, and of a bill which had been introduced on the part of
administration, authorizing his Majesty to conclude a peace or truce
with those who were still denominated "the revolted colonies of North
America." These papers, he said, would manifest the dispositions
prevailing with the government and people of England towards those of
America; and, if the like pacific temper should prevail in this
country, both inclination and duty would lead him to meet it with the
most zealous concurrence. He had addressed to congress, he said, a
letter containing the same communications, and he solicited a passport
for the person who should convey it.

At this time, the bill enabling the British monarch to conclude a
peace or truce with America had not become a law; nor was any
assurance given that the present commissioners were empowered to offer
other terms than those which had been formerly rejected. General
Carleton therefore could not hope that negotiations would commence on
such a basis; nor be disappointed at the refusal of the passports he
requested by congress, to whom the application was, of course,
referred. The letter may have been written for the general purpose of
conciliation, and of producing a disposition in the United States on
the subject of hostilities, corresponding with that which had been
expressed in the House of Commons. But the situation of the United
States justified a suspicion of different motives; and prudence
required that their conduct should be influenced by that suspicion.
The repugnance of the king to a dismemberment of the empire was
understood; and it was thought probable that the sentiments expressed
in the House of Commons might be attributable rather to a desire of
changing ministers, than to any fixed determination to relinquish the
design of reannexing America to the crown.

Under these impressions, the overtures now made were considered as
opiates, administered to lull the spirit of vigilance which the
guardians of the public safety laboured to keep up, into a state of
fatal repose; and to prevent those measures of security which it might
yet be necessary to adopt.

This jealousy was nourished by all the intelligence received from
Europe. The utmost address of the British cabinet had been employed to
detach the belligerents from each other. The mediation