BRITISH AND AMERICAN DIPLOMACY

AFFECTING CANADA.

1782-1899.

THE THE peace negotiations of 1782, which resulted in Peace negoti

ations be

the "Provisional Articles" of that year, and the tween the "Definitive Treaty" of 1783, acknowledging the Inde- United States pendence of the Thirteen American Colonies, marked Britain, 1782. the commencement of diplomatic intercourse between the United States and Great Britain. According to the frank avowal of an American apologist, the undertaking was "a difficult errand in diplomacy, especially American under circumstances demanding wariness and adroit- diplomatic ness, if not even craft and dissimulation; " * _ a qualities. grotesque grouping of appropriate, with sinister, diplomatic qualities which were severally illustrated in the international drama then placed on the stage of history. The wariness and adroitness, and perhaps what might be paraphrased as the sinister strategy, of some of the players, the incapacity and blundering indiscretion of others, and the mournful epilogue pronounced by the King over "the downfall of a once "Downfall of a respectable respectable Empire," best explain why only one of Empire." the nations, then forming the audience, applauded the Treaty.

Fall of Lord The disaster to Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, in North's Ministry, March, October, 1781, hastened the downfall of the ministry

1782.

ence between
Lord Shel-
burne and
Dr. Franklin.

of Lord North; and in March, 1782, the Rockingham administration came into power, -the chief policy of which was the stoppage of the war in America, and the recognition of the Independence of the Revolted Colonies, as the United States. Shortly before the formation of the new Government, Lord Shelburne

had, through a friend, Lord Cholmondely, intimated Correspond to Dr. Franklin, then diplomatic representative of the Congress of the United States in Paris, that he would be pleased to hear from him; whereupon Dr. Franklin replied congratulating him on the change of public opinion in England towards America, and expressing the hope that it would tend to produce a general peace. When Dr. Franklin's letter arrived, Lord Shelburne

Lord Shelburne be

was Secretary of State, and to him must be justly comes Secre- conceded the credit of initiating the peace negotiations tary of State. which resulted in the Treaty of Independence. But

his negotiations were unfortunately sullied by a He sends Mr. want of candor.* Without the knowledge of his Oswald to ne- colleagues he despatched a Mr. Richard Oswald to gotiate with Dr. Franklin. Paris with instructions to open informal negotiations for peace with the representative of the American Congress at the French Court.†

Mr. Oswald was introduced by Lord Shelburne to

man."

Dr. Franklin as "a pacifical man,* conversant in those "A pacifical negotiations which are most interesting to mankind," a peculiarity which the Doctor confirmed by describing him as "a plain and sincere old man, who seems now to have no desire but that of being useful in doing good." He had been a successful Scotch merchant in the City of London, was at one time an army contractor, and had acquired, through his wife, large estates in the West Indies and America; and, on account of his connection with both countries, had been occasionally consulted by the Government during the American war. + But a candid, and therefore instructive, comment on Mr. Oswald's unfitness has been furnished by a former eminent American diplomat, that "Of all the remarkable incidents in this remark- American able transaction, nothing now seems so difficult to account for as the mode in which Great Britain pur- unfitness. sued her objects by negotiation. The individual pitched upon to deal with the United States was a respectable and amiable private gentleman, nominated at the suggestion of Dr. Franklin, with whom he was to treat, because he thought he would get along easily with him; but by no means a match for a combination of three such men as Franklin, Jay and John Adams." ‡

+

1

comments on Mr. Oswald's American diplomatic representatives.

Unfit representatives has been Great Britain's misfortune.

United and separate policies of American diplomats.

The representatives of the American Congress were Dr. Franklin, then Minister to France; John Adams, Minister at the Hague, formerly Commissioner to France, and Chief Justice of Massachusetts; John Jay, Minister to Spain, ex-President of Congress, and then Chief Justice of New York; Henry Laurens, Minister to Holland, formerly President of Congress, and who had just been exchanged for Lord Cornwallis.

To be on equal terms with such astute and experienced politicians the same writer has added: "Great Britain had need of the best capacity and diplomatic experience within her borders. But it was her fortune, during all this period, and indeed almost to the present day, to insist upon under-rating the people with whom she had to deal, because they had been her dependents; a mistake which has been productive of more unfortunate consequences to herself than an age of repentance can repair."

The American representatives, though differing on some details of the proposed Treaty of Peace, were united in policy to secure the independence of the American Colonies, and to repudiate all national responsibility for the action of the several States in confiscating the property of the Loyalist BritishAmerican subjects. Each of them had, in addition, a special interest to further in the Treaty. Dr. Franklin's was the cession of Canada and Nova Scotia to the United States. Mr. Jay's was the extension of their boundaries through the Indian and Canadian territories westward over the Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi River. Mr. Adams championed the New Englanders' claim to the Canadian fisheries, which they pressed with extreme anxiety; and they relied on him to secure the fisheries for them, if it

were a human possibility to do so.

*

Mr. Oswald arrived in Paris about the middle of Mr. Oswald meets Dr.

cession of

April, 1782; and, after communicating Lord Shel-Franklin, burne's desire for peace to Dr. Franklin, and ascertain- who proposes ing his views, the Doctor gave him a confidential paper Canada and of "Notes for mere conversation matter between Mr. Nova Scotia.

Oswald and Mr. Franklin," which contained what, by

others, would have been considered a startling proposition-that Great Britain should " voluntarily cede" the whole of Canada and Nova Scotia to the United States. On his return to London, Mr. Oswald reported to Lord Shelburne the result of his mission, and handed to him the confidential notes, afterwards known in the negotiations as the "Canada paper."‡

Lord Shelburne appears to have given only a partial Lord Shelburne's paroutline of Mr. Oswald's report to his colleagues in the tial report to Cabinet; and he withheld from them all knowledge of the Ministry. the "Canada paper." The excuse offered for him was, that "there was nothing in the contents of the paper, or in the manner in which it came into his hands, which rendered it incumbent on him to communicate it to