of their friendship for him, of the just estimate which they
form of his confidence in their impartiality, and of the true interest
which they take in the prompt re-establishment of peace.

The King has not changed, and will not change, in his desire to second
views so salutary; and the two high mediating powers may be assured,
that so far as concerns his Majesty, it will not be owing to him, if
they are not soon in a situation to give full scope to their
beneficent zeal.

But the Court of London deprives the King of every expedient and every
hope, on this subject, by its invariable resolution to regard and
treat the Americans as its subjects. Such a resolution renders
abortive every exertion, that may be made for obtaining peace. It
utterly destroys the plan of the two mediating powers, since it
decides, in the most peremptory manner, the question which is the
subject of dispute, and the direct or indirect decision of which
should be the preliminary basis of the future pacification.

In this state of things the King thinks, that the conferences,
proposed by the two mediating Courts, would at present be without
effect, and that the meeting of the respective plenipotentiaries would
be but a vain pretence, which would not diminish nor abridge the
horrors of war, and which might compromise the dignity of their
Imperial Majesties.

The King is truly sorry to see, that things have taken a direction so
contrary to his wishes, and to the expectations of their Imperial
Majesties; and, if it were in his power to change it, he would do it
with an eagerness, which would show to them the purity of his
intentions; but his Majesty thinks it his duty to observe, that he has
allies with whom he has inviolable engagements, that he should betray
them by abandoning the American cause, and that he should betray this
cause, if he consented to negotiate a peace separate from and
independent of the United States. The high mediating powers have
perceived the impossibility of such a proceeding, since they have
themselves proposed to place the negotiation of the King, and that of
the United States, upon an equal footing.

But even admitting, that the King should lay the affairs of America
out of the question, that he should be content to act only for his own
personal interest, and that he should leave to the Americans the care
of coming to an accommodation with their mother country, what would
be the result of this mode of proceeding?

T