y and willing to make some sacrifices, in order to obtain
peace. Accordingly an interchange of memorials was commenced, and in the
month of July Mr. Stanley was dispatched to Paris, while the Count de
Bussy came over to London, for the purpose of negociating. Preliminaries
were mutually proposed and examined. On their part the French offered
to cede Canada; to restore Minorca in exchange for Guadaloupe and
Marigalante; to give up Senegal and Goree for Anamaboo and Acra; to
renounce all claim to Cape Breton, on which no fortification was to
be erected; and to consent that Dunkirk should be demolished. But one
demand made by the French was fatal to the success of the negociations.
They demanded the restitution of all the captures made at sea by the
English before the declaration of war, on the ground that such captures
were contrary to all international law, which restitution was sternly
and absolutely refused, the English ministers arguing, that the right of
all hostile operations results not from a formal declaration of war, but
from the original hostilities of the aggressor. Another obstacle in the
way of peace, was the refusal of the French to restore Cassel, Gueldres,
and other places which they had taken from his Prussian majesty,
although they were ready to evacuate what they occupied in Hanover. And
as if these obstacles were not sufficient, the French preliminaries
were accompanied by a private memorial, demanding from England the
satisfaction of certain claims advanced by Spain, a country with which,
though differences existed, England was at peace. The French ambassador
was given to understand on this point, that the king of England would
never suffer his disputes with Spain to be thus mixed up with the
negociations carrying on with his country, and the cabinet called upon
the Spanish ambassador to disavow all participation in such a procedure,
and to state that his court was neither cognizant of it, nor wished to
blend its trifling differences with the weighty quarrels of France. But
this demand produced an unlooked-for budget, The Spanish ambassador at
first returned an evasive reply, but he was soon authorized by the court
of Spain to declare, that the proceedings of the French envoy had the
entire sanction of his Catholic majesty; and that, while his master was
anxious for peace, he was united as much by mutual interest as by the
ties of blood with the king of France. The fact is, Charles III., who
now occupi