ancellor.

One of the earliest measures of the new Government was to negotiate a
peace with America; and Mr. Thomas Grenville was appointed upon a
mission for that purpose to Paris, to meet Dr. Franklin. The history of
that mission is contained in a series of deeply interesting letters,
which, independently of the flood of light they throw upon the American
business, possess a permanent value as illustrations of the personal
characters of the writers (especially those of Sheridan, to whose
rashness Mr. Grenville makes express allusion), and as showing that,
even in office, the Whigs were not united amongst themselves. The
materials of which the Cabinet was formed, being composed of the
Rockingham, and the Chatham, or Shelburne Whigs--two sections of that
party which had never cordially coalesced--was not calculated to work
together; but it could not have been anticipated that their personal
jealousies would have taken a shape so dangerous as these letters
disclose.

It is clear, from the singular facts revealed in this Correspondence,
that, while an ostensible Minister was dispatched to Paris by the
general action of the Government, with the sanction of the King, to
negotiate terms with the American Minister, Lord Shelburne had taken
upon himself to appoint another negotiator, who was not only not to act
in concert with Mr. Grenville, but whose clandestine mission seems to
have been expressly intended to thwart and embarrass him, and whose
appointment was without the approval, or even the knowledge, of the
Cabinet. How far the King may have secretly supported Lord Shelburne in
this breach of faith with his colleagues, we are left to conjecture; but
the intriguing character ascribed to His Majesty by Lord Shelburne
himself, justifies, to some extent, the suspicion that a proceeding so
bold and so full of hazard to the Whig Administration, was not adopted
upon the sole responsibility of the Minister. Lord Shelburne said of the
King, that he "possessed one art beyond any man he had ever known; for
that by the familiarity of his intercourse he obtained your confidence,
procured from you your opinion of different public characters, and then
availed himself of this knowledge to sow dissensions." (Nicholl's
Recollections and Reflections during the reign of George III.) This
opinion, just or unjust (and there is no great reason to doubt its
justice), was founded upon extensive personal experiences, of which this
sinister atte