her to authorise Mr
Fitzherbert to resume the negotiation begun by Mr Grenville; that he
had presented his credentials the 4th instant; that Mr Oswald had yet
received only a copy of his, owing to the Chancellor's absence; that
Mr Fitzherbert had returned the answer of Great Britain to the counter
proposition given by France; that this contains full evidence of the
unsteadiness of Lord Shelburne's conduct, since, instead of making the
independence of America a separate object, it proposes it as a
condition, and as the price of peace, and adds, that every other
circumstance should be placed upon the basis of 1763.

He observes, that the Chevalier de la Luzerne will judge from this,
that they affected much surprise at the counter propositions, and that
they did not assent to them; neither on the other hand, have they yet
refused them, but confine themselves to demanding explanations. That
this was then the state of their negotiations; that Mr Oswald had
presented his commission, to which Mr Franklin and Mr Jay had yet
given no reply, suspending it till they knew his (the Count de
Vergennes's) sentiments; that as yet he had formed no opinion, waiting
the result of a conference, which he was to have the next day with
those Ministers; that the commission was in the usual form, but speaks
of the Americans as Colonies, without naming them rebels, or asserting
any claims upon them.

That he did not for his part believe, that Lord Shelburne would
negotiate a general peace sincerely, till he lost all hopes of sowing
dissensions and treating separately; that they were convinced, that
neither France nor Spain were to be deceived, and that he (the Count
de Vergennes,) entertained the same sentiments with respect to the
Americans, but that the British Ministry, deceiving themselves, may
continue to tempt them till a peace is signed; that the information
they (the Court of France,) had received from him (the Minister of
France,) had left them little doubt on that head; and that those
doubts will be entirely removed when the States shall have
respectively imitated the example of Maryland, Virginia, and New
Jersey.

That, however, good faith was not all that was required of an ally;
that they must feel themselves in a situation to impose terms on the
enemy; that unhappily the Americans had neglected this; that the
Minister of France could not press this too closely upon us.

He then proceeds to inform the Minister, that while the B