agent_ ought to be
determined in the most precise and positive manner, and Congress
should be invited to confide its interests to the mediation. This
invitation is so much the more interesting, as the negotiation
relative to America should go hand in hand with that of the Courts of
Madrid and Versailles, and by consequence, the negotiations although
separate should commence at the same time.

But who will invite the Congress to treat with England? The King
cannot, since the First Article excludes him from the negotiation.
This task then can only be executed by the mediators themselves; all
that the King can do, and that he will do with zeal and fidelity, is
to invite the Americans to the peace, and to facilitate it by every
means that they believe compatible with their essential interests. But
that the King may take this step with safety, and the hopes of
success, and with the certainty of not rendering himself suspected by
the Americans, it is necessary that he should first know the
determination of the mediators upon the observations now made to them,
and that this determination should be such as to secure to the
American States their political existence.

The two high mediators and their Ministers are too enlightened not to
perceive, that without this preliminary measure the Congress will send
no person to Vienna, and that the King can make no attempts to engage
them thereto, without incurring the danger of involving himself, by
means whereof, and for the reasons already urged, the mediation will
be stopped at its first outset. These reflections appear to merit the
most serious attention of the two mediating Courts.

"ARTICLE II. _This separate peace cannot, however, be signed,
except conjointly, and at the same time with that of the powers
whose interests shall be treated by the mediating Courts. Although
neither peace, notwithstanding they are treated separately, shall
be concluded without the other, yet care shall be taken to inform
the mediators constantly of the progress of that, which regards
Great Britain and the Colonies, to the end, that the mediation may
be able to regulate the measures intrusted to it according to the
state of the negotiation relating to the Colonies, and both of the
pacifications, which shall have been separately concluded at the
same time, shall be solemnly guarantied by the mediating Courts,
and by every other neutral power, whose guara