America, as the determination of Great Britain upon mature consideration of the question; and has by such methods given advantage to the enemies of this country to promote and confirm that commerce and connexion between the United States of America and themselves, which during the contest have been turned from their natural channel with this country, which this peace so concluded has not yet contributed to restore.

and

The Right Hon. C. J. Fox, secretary of state, to his

excellency B. FRANKLIN, Esg.

Sir,

St. James's, April 19, 1783. Although it is unnecessary for me to introduce to your acquaintance a gentleman so well known to you as Mr. Hartley, who will have the honor of delivering to you this letter, yet it may be proper for me to inform you that he has the full and entire confidence of his majesty's ministers upon the subject of his mission.

Permit me, sir, to take this opportunity of assuring you how happy I should esteem myself if it were to prove my lot to be the instrument of completing a real and substantial reconciliation between two countries formed by nature to be in a state of friendship one with the other, and thereby to put the finishing hand to a building, in laying the first stone of which I may fairly boast that I had some share.

I have the honor to be, with every sentiment of regard and esteem, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

C. J. Fox.

Three articles proposed by the AMERICAN MINISTERS, and delivered to DAVID HARTLEY, Esg. the British envoy. April 29, 1788..r

Art. 1. It is agreed that so soon as his Britannic majesty shall have withdrawn all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the United States of America, and from every port, post, place, and harbor within the same, as stipulated by the 7th article of the provisional treaty of 80th of November, 1782, then and thenceforth, for and during the term of years, all rivers, harbors, lakes, ports, and places, belonging to the United States, or any of them, shall be open and free to the merchants and other subjects of the crown of Great Britain, and his trading vessels: who shall be received, treated, and protected, like the merchant and trading vessels of the state in which they may be liable to no other charges or duties,

And reciprocally all rivers, harbors, lakes, ports, and places, under the dominion of his Britannic majesty, shall thenceforth be open and free to the merchants and trading vessels of the said United States, and of each and every of them who shall be received, treated, and protected, like the merchants and trading vessels of Great Britain, and be liable to no other charges or duties: saving always to the chartered trading companies of Great Britain, such exclusive use and trade of their respective ports and establishments, as neither the other subjects of Great Britain, nor any of the most favored nation, participate in.

Art. 2. It is agreed that such persons as may be in confinement in the United States of America for or by reason of the part which they may have taken in the late war, shall be set at liberty immediately on the evacuation of the said states by the troops and fleets of his Britannic majesty.

And it is likewise agreed that all such persons who may be in confinement in any parts under the dominion of his Britannic Majesty, for or by reason of the part which they may have taken in the late war, shall at the same time be also immediately set at liberty,

Art. 3. The prisoners made respectively by the arms of his Britannic majesty, and those of the United States of America both by land and sea, shall be immediately set at liberty with out ransom, on paying the debts they may have contracted during their captivity; and each contracting party shall respectively reimburse the sums which shall have been advanced for the subsistence and maintenance of their prisoners by the sovereign of the country where they shall have been detained, according to the receipts and attested accounts, and other authentic titles which shall be produced on each side.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COUNT DE VERGENNES,

SIR,

Passy, May 5, 1783.

It was my intention to pay my devoirs at Versailles to-morrow. I thank your excellency nevertheless for your kind admonition. I omitted two of the last three days from a mistaken apprehension that being holidays there would be no court. Mr. Laurens and Mr. Jay are both invalids; and

last severe fit of the gout, my legs have continued so weak, that I am hardly able to keep pace with the minis ters, who walk fast, especially in going up and down stairs. I beg you to be assured, that whatever deficiency there may be of strength, there is none of respect, in, sir, your excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN..

To DAVID HARTLEY, Esq. M. P.

DEAR FRIEND,

Passy, May 8, 1783. I send you enclosed the copies you desired of the papers I read to you yesterday.' I should be happy if I could see, before I die, the proposed improvement of the law of nations established. The miseries of mankind would be diminished by it, and the happiness of millions secured and promoted. If the practice of privateering could be profitable to any civilised nation, it might be so to us Americans, since we are so situated on the globe, as that the rich commerce of Europe with the West Indies, consisting of manufactures, sugars, &c. is obliged to pass before our doors, which enables us to make short and cheap cruizes, while our own comnierce is in such bulky low-priced articles as that ten of our ships taken by you are not equal in value to one of yours, and you must come far from home at a great expense to look for them. I hope therefore that this proposition, if made by us, will appear in its true light, as having humanity, only for its motive. I do not wish to see a new Barbary rising in America, and our long-extended coast occupied by piratical states. I fear lest our privateering success in the two last wars should already have given our people too strong a relish for that most mischievous kind of gaming, mixed blood; and if a stop is not now put to the practice, mankind may hereafter be more plagued with American corsairs than they have been and are with the Turkish. Try, my friend, what you can do, in procuring for your nation the glory of being, though the greatest naval power, the first who voluntarily relinquished the advantage that power seems to give them, of plundering others, and

See the proposition about privateering, annexed to Letter to R. Oswald Esq. January 14, 1783.

thereby impeding the mutual communications among men of the gifts of God, and rendering miserable multitudes of merchants and their families, artizans, and cultivators of the earth, the most peaceable and innocent part of the human species. With great esteem and affection, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most sincerely. B. FRANKLIN.

[The following papers were delivered to the American commissioners by David Hartley, Esq. the 15th of May, 1783.]

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE HON. C. J. Fox TO DAVID HARTLEY, ESQ.

May 9, 1783.

"I send you enclosed the copy of a memorial I have received from the merchants trading to South Carolina and Georgia, as also the duplicate of one presented by them to Lord Shelburne in May 1782. I am to desire you will endeavor to obtain for them of the ministers plenipotentiary of the United States of America, such representations of their case, as it appears on the consideration of it justly to deserve, and I shall be much obliged to you, if you will inforni, me, as soon as you can, of the manner in which they receive these papers, and how far they think the persons interested may hope to obtain relief, that I may acquaint them therewith."

TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE, &c.,

One of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state.

The MEMORIAL of the subscribing merchants trading to South Carolina and Georgia in behalf of themselves and others,