been agreed on between the American Commissioners and me to be submitted to His Majesty's consideration."* Draft Treaty It provided for : (1) The Independence of the United provided for (1) Indepen- States. (2) The cession of nearly the whole of Canada,

dence.

Cession of including what are now the best settled parts of OntaCanadian ter-rio, with the thousands of British Loyalists and French ritory, and its Canadians by whom it had been settled, -the boundary

British settlers.

being from the Atlantic on similar lines to those described in the subsequently signed Treaty, as far as latitude 45° on the St. Lawrence, at which point it was proposed to cross the river, and to run from "thence straight to the south end of Lake Nipissing, and thence straight to the source of the River Mississippi." + (3)

(3) Right to The cession of the Canadian fisheries in these words: Canadian fisheries. "the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind" in British-Canadian waters, "where the inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish." ‡

(4) Naviga- (4) The free navigation of the River Mississippi to issippi with Great Britain, but without any means of entrance out entrance or exit for her ships. § Compensation for the Loyal

ists, reversal of confiscations, and payment of American
debts to British merchants, were refused, and there- Rights
upon abandoned by the British Commissioners.*

abandoned.

Lord Shelburne had particularly instructed Mr. Lord ShelOswald that no independence should be acknowledged French Minwithout the British Loyalists being indemnified, and ister on Loy. their confiscated property restored. And the French Minister had conceded the justice of these claims by advising the American Commissioners that their views on the subject of the Loyalists were unreasonable.‡ Political bitterness, however, influenced American diplomacy; § and Messrs. Oswald and Vaughan careless of the honour and justice of their nation, approved Unfaithfulof the demand that not a foot of British land should Messrs. be left in America where the Loyalists could find a Oswald and Vaughan. refuge from political persecution, or a home for their families; and by ultimately ceding a fruitful agricultural territory in the latitude of their homes, which had, up to the Revolution, formed no part of the territory of the original Thirteen Colonies. T

U. S. severity The Loyalists had been treated with undue severity to Loyalists. by the American revolutionists, for no crime save fidelity to the lost cause of Great Britain. A graphic statement of their sufferings has been given by a gifted writer, whose sympathies are known to be favourable to the United States:

"The first civil war in America was followed, not by amnesty, but by an outpouring of the vengeance of the victors on the fallen. Some Royalists were put to death. Many others were despoiled of all they had, and driven from their country. Massachusetts banished by name 308 of her people, making death the penalty for a second return. New Hampshire proscribed 76; Pennsylvania attainted nearly 500; Delaware confiscated the property of 46; North Carolina, of 65, and of 4 mercantile firms; Georgia also passed an Act of confiscation; that of Maryland was still more sweeping. South Carolina divided the Loyalists into four classes, inflicting a different punishment upon each. Of the 59 persons attainted in New York, 3 were married women, guilty probably of nothing but adhering to their husbands, members of the Council, or Law Officers, who were bound in personal honour to be faithful to the Crown. Upon the evacuation of Charleston, as a British Officer who was on the spot stated, the Loyalists were imprisoned, whipped, tarred and feathered, dragged through horse-ponds, and carried about the town with 'Tory' on their breasts. All of them were turned out of their houses and plundered, 24 of them were hanged upon a gallows facing the quay, in sight of the British fleet, with the army and refugees on board."*

Judged by their subsequent actions, neither Lord Diplomatic pilotage of

Shelburne, nor any of his colleagues, appears to have Messrs. realized, until Mr. Jay's draft treaty was before them, Oswald and Vaughan. the impending Decensus Averni Politici, into which they had, partly with their own consent, and partly from want of efficient supervision, allowed the colonial and territorial interests of Great Britain in Canada, to drift, under the unskilful diplomatic pilotage of Messrs. Oswald and Vaughan.

Thus piloted, and surrounded by the darkness of Great Britain loses 13 colo

home ignorance of the agricultural wealth, and the nies and then

undeveloped resources, and apparently indifferent to the cedes territory sufficient future commercial value of the trade, of the coveted for 9 new Canadian territory, Lord Shelburne's Government, to States. the astonishment of the European allies of the United States, surrendered to every demand, abandoned the Loyalists and, after losing thirteen British Colonies, in a fit of unintelligible, and—as Great Britain subsequently realized - unappreciated, benevolence, gratuitously made the Thirteen United States a gigantic present of sufficient British and Canadian territory, which British arms had won from France, out of which to create nine additional States; - thus endowing the revolted and lost Colonies with an additional territorial empire Equal in area to Germany of about 415,000 square miles, about equal to the and France. present combined area of Germany and France; and thereby alienizing the British inhabitants which had their homes within its boundaries.

The King's plaintive letter.

Lord Shel

*

*

When the extravagant generosity of the Draft Treaty was realized, and the tie between the American Colonies and Great Britain was about to be severed, the King plaintively wrote to Lord Shelburne: "I am too much agitated with a fear of sacrificing the interests of my country that I am unable to add anything on that subject, but most frequent prayers to Heaven to guide me so to act, that posterity may not lay the downfall of this once respectable Empire at my door; and that if ruin should attend the measures that may be adopted, I may not long survive them." * Lord Shelburne, in writing to Mr. Oswald, evidently

burne's warn-felt the peril in which his Government stood, and ing to Mr. Oswald. warned him that "the nation would rise to do itself justice, and to recover its wounded honour." Apparently, with the hope of averting, if possible, the imMr. Strachey pending national disaster, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry sent to avert Strachey, who had been Secretary to Lord Clive, and the impending disasters. was then Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was

despatched to Paris with instructions to insist upon compensation to the Loyalists, the retention by Great Britain of the "Indian Territory," and of the original boundaries of Canada within the Ohio and Mississippi ; or, if any Canadian territory should be ceded, to charge it with compensation for the Loyalists; to obtain a more favourable boundary of Nova Scotia, and to reject the cession of the Canadian Fisheries. †

Mr. Strachey, though coming upon the diplomatic battle-ground late, and single-handed, appears to have fought for his imperilled cause with courageous tenacity, and to have taken a decided stand against some