hat account that I give
you this narrative, that this intended appointment has
effectually stopped Franklin's mouth to me; and that when he is
told that Mr. Oswald is to be the Commissioner to treat with
him, it is but natural that he should reserve his confidence for
the quarter so pointed out to him; nor does this secret seem
only known to Franklin; as Lafayette said, laughing, yesterday,
that he had just left _Lord Shelburne's ambassador_ at Passy.
Indeed, this is not the first moment of a separate and private
negotiation; for Mr. Oswald, suspecting, by something that I
dropped, that Franklin had talked to me about Canada, (though,
by the bye, he never had), told me this circumstance as follows.
When he was in England, the last time but one, he carried with
him a paper, entrusted to him by Franklin, under condition that
it should be shown only to Lord Shelburne, and returned into his
own hands at Passy; this paper, under the title of "Notes of a
Conversation," contained an idea of Canada being spontaneously
ceded by England to the Thirteen Provinces, in order that
Congress might sell the unappropriated lands, and make a fund
thereby, in order to compensate the damages done by the English
army, and even those sustained too by the royalists. This paper,
given with many precautions, for fear of its being known to the
French Court, to whom it was supposed not to be agreeable, Mr.
Oswald showed to Lord Shelburne, who, after keeping it a day, as
Mr. Oswald supposes to show to the King, returned it to him, and
it was by him brought back to Franklin.

I say nothing to the proposition itself, to the impolicy of
bringing a strange neighbourhood to the Newfoundland Fishery, or
to the little reason that England would naturally see in having
lost thirteen provinces to give away a fourteenth; but I mention
it to show you an early trace of separate negotiation, which
perhaps you did not before know. Under these circumstances, I
felt very much tempted to go over and explain them to you _viva
voce_ rather than by letter, and I must say, with the farther
intention of suggesting to you the only idea that seems likely
to answer your purpose, and it is this: the Spanish Ambassador
will in a day or two have the powers from his Court; the
Americans are here, so are the French; why should you n