Fox added that he detested as much as he despised it. They also took especial pleasure in taunting the Prime Minister with the words used by him in a former year, that whenever the independence of the Colonies was granted, the sun of England would have set. Yet, if more fairly viewed, where lay the inconsistency? Or is there any concession so disastrous but it may at length be wrung from the most honest Minister by the exigency of public affairs? In his first speech, when he succeeded to the Treasury, last summer, Lord Shelburne had, as it were, anticipated this attack, by adverting to his own past words, and declaring that the opinion which they stated was unchanged. But he had added, that however great might be the blow to England, he should, far from giving way to despair, endeavour to strain every nerve, and improve every opportunity, to prevent the Court of France from being in a situation to dictate the terms of peace. Thus, he said, although the sun of England would set with the loss of America, it was his resolution to improve the twilight, and prepare for the rising of England's sun again!

*

On the 23rd of the same December, the Houses having adjourned for a month of Christmas Recess, the Government made great exertions that, before they met again, the negotiations with Spain and France might be brought to a successful close. Spain was most eager to regain Gibraltar by treaty, since she could not by force of arms; and France desired to support her in that pretension. Lord Shelburne, on his part, was not unwilling to yield the rock-fortress in exchange for the island of Porto Rico, which was deemed by him a satisfactory equivalent, and which might probably be wrung from the Court of Madrid, although its ambassador at Paris had declared in the first instance that both Cuba and Porto Rico must be numbered as among "the

*Speech in the House of Lords, July 10. 1782. The original sunset speech was delivered March 5. 1778. So early as January 25. 1781, however, Lord Shelburne declared that he "had waked from those dreams of "British dominion." See Parl. Hist. vol. xix. p. 850., vol. xxi. p. 1035., and vol. xxiii. p. 194.

1783. PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE WITH FRANCE & SPAIN. 213

"limbs of Spain."* In the less importance which Lord Shelburne appears to have attached to Gibraltar as an English possession, he did no more than follow the views of Lord Chatham, Lord Stanhope, and other eminent Ministers of England, since the Peace of Utrecht. But he encountered great difficulties in his own Cabinet. Several of his colleagues, the Duke of Grafton more especially, insisted that Trinidad, at least, should be added to the offers of Spain.** Moreover, the much coveted fortress had become endeared to the English people, since it had been so gallantly defended by their arms. When on the 5th of this month, the seconder of the Address in the House of Commons, Mr. Henry Bankes, had let fall some hints of the cession, probably by the express desire of Lord Shelburne, Fox had thundered against the bare idea of such a scheme. With these obstacles, some not wholly expected, full before him, the Prime Minister relinquished all thoughts of an equivalent, and intimated to the Court of Spain that no terms would tempt the British nation to give up Gibraltar. Such was the resentment of King Charles and of his Ministers at this reply, that they spoke of nothing less than an immediate renewal of the war. But finding their French allies disinclined to back them further, and softened in some degree by the offer of East Florida, in addition to the western districts of that province, which their troops had already overrun, they sent in at last a sullen acquiescence. Thus on the 20th of January, Mr. Fitzherbert was enabled to sign, at Versailles, Preliminaries of Peace with the Comte de Vergennes, as Minister of France, and also with the Comte d'Aranda, as ambassador from Spain.

By the treaty with France, the right of that Power to fish off the coast of Newfoundland and on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was re-established on the same footing as in the treaties of Utrecht and of Paris, but with a clearer definition of

*Mr. Fitzherbert to Lord Grantham, October 28. 1782. State Paper Office, and Appendix.

**MS. Memoirs of the Duke of Grafton. See in my Appendix, the extract headed "Divisions in Lord Shelburne's Cabinet."

the limits and the additional cession from England of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. In the West Indies, England restored St. Lucia and ceded Tobago, gaining back in return Granada, St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Kitt's, Nevis, and Montserrat. In Africa, England yielded the river Senegal with its dependencies and forts, and likewise the island of Goree, retaining the possession of Fort James and of the river Gambia. In India, the French recovered Chandernagore and Pondicherry, as also Mahé and the Comptoir of Surat, with securities for their commerce, and liberty to surround Chandernagore with a ditch for draining the waters. At home, they were gratified with the abrogation of all the articles in the treaty of Utrecht relative to the demolition of Dunkirk.

By the treaty with Spain, King George ceded the island of Minorca and both the Floridas, while King Charles guaranteed to the English the unmolested right of cutting logwood in a district of which the boundaries were to be fixed, and agreed to restore Providence and the Bahama isles. But this last article proved of small account, since, as it chanced, before the final suspension of hostilities the Bahamas were as easily recovered as they had been easily lost.

With the Dutch, a truce only was for the present concluded; but within a few months a treaty was settled on the basis of mutual restitution, excepting the town of Negapatam, which Holland ceded.

Such were the conditions said Mr. Pitt in his great speech to vindicate them - the conditions the ruinous conditions forsooth! - to which this country, engaged with four powerful states in close alliance, and exhausted in all its resources, thought fit to subscribe for the dissolution of that alliance and the immediate enjoyment of peace. Apart from the party-spirit, the vehement party-spirit, of the day, it might be natural for men flushed with the recent glories of Elliot and Rodney to call out for better terms. But they did not know how much in this unequal contest the sinews of the

1783.

PARTY CONFLICTS.

215

body-politic had been tried and strained. They did not know, as Mr. Pitt set forth, that while every ship of war which could be spared was sailing with Lord Howe for the relief of Gibraltar, the Baltic fleet, almost as valuable as Gibraltar itself, since it contained all the materials for future war, was on its way to England wholly unprotected, that twelve Dutch sail of the line had lain in wait to intercept it, and that it passed by them through some almost inexplicable stroke of fortune. They did not know, that exclusive of the annual services the unfunded debt at that time was not less than thirty millions, or that the Ministers had found, on careful inquiry, a force of three thousand men the utmost which could be safely sent from this country on any foreign expedition. With these facts before us, and after such reverses as those at Saratoga and York-town, can it be fairly denied that the terms of the peace, though no doubt unfavourable, were adequate to any just pretensions we might form? Or is there the smallest reason to suppose, that if either Lord North or Mr. Fox had been Prime Minister instead of the Earl of Shelburne, any better conditions could have been obtained? Let it also be remembered, that in the case of the United States and of the island of Minorca, we did no more than concede in form what we had already lost in fact; and that as to Dunkirk, we only removed a prohibition still galling to French pride and no longer needful for our own security. That harbour was first an object of jealousy when vessels were constructed of far inferior draught; and the ablest seamen, as the first Lord Hawke, had judged that no skill or expense would enable it to receive a fleet of the line.

How little such considerations weighed with heated partisans how soon after the 27th of January, when copies of all three Preliminary Treaties were brought down by Mr. Secretary Townshend, both the party leaders in the Commons, Lord North and Mr. Fox, leagued together against them-how, from a new and strange coalition an ill-formed and ricketty government struggled into life - how the King

chafed at the dominion, so long eluded, of the Great Whig Houses - and how, before the close of the year, His Majesty was again set free are events that I shall leave to another historian, or certainly at least, to another history. It remains for me here to state, that the new administration, earnestly, as was its duty, pursued the conclusion of the definitive treaties. In the place of Mr. Oswald and of Mr. Fitzherbert, each of whom was deemed too much "Lord Shelburne's man," Mr. David Hartley and the Duke of Manchester were despatched to Paris. Between Mr. Hartley and the American Commissioners, articles of commercial intercourse were discussed at some length but without result. No blame whatever should attach to Mr. Fox who directed these negotiations, since, as it appears, he was desirous "to give as much "facility to the trade between the two countries as is con"sistent with preserving the principles of the Act of Naviga"tion."* Yet Lord Shelburne always contended, that these commercial propositions would have thriven better had they been still confided to his care. Certain it is, at least, that in general Lord Shelburne had the larger and the clearer views of commerce. He was a warm and zealous disciple of Adam Smith, while Fox had turned but little thought to questions of political economy, and never so much as read the "Wealth of Nations."**

The commercial propositions failing, the negotiators at length resolved, that the definitive Peace with America should be nothing beyond a transcript of the Provisional Articles. Thus, also, the Duke of Manchester had not been able to effect any material change in the Preliminary Treaties with France and Spain; but it was agreed that, for the sake of compliment, the Emperor of Germany and the Empress of Russia should be named as Mediators. On this footing, the three definitive Treaties with America, France,

These are Mr. Fox's own words, in a letter to the King, of April 8. 1783. "Memorials," by Lord John Russell, vol. ii. p. 122., a publication, let me here add, of essential value to History.

** This was owned by himself, with his usual manly frankness, to Mr. Charles Butler. See the Reminiscences of the latter, vol. i. p. 176. ed. 1824,