meth, 1782.

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. he undertook tussendly, making no

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1. rs and. I carried and ronul a Secunder ast, to his Majesty's Saue Wind was my attended to; and in 1. VS Soon after set at full liberty. esat per putie, yet it is to be hoped a

variation in the mode of discharge will not be supposed of any essential difference.

And with respect to Mr. Laurens, I am satisfied he will consider himself as much interested in the success of this application, as if his own discharge had been obtained under the form, as proposed by the representation which I delivered to the Secretaries of State, and I make no doubt will sincerely join my Lord Cornwallis in an acknowledgment of your favor and good offices, in granting his lordship a full discharge of his parole abovementioned.

I have the honor to be, with much respect, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, RICHARD OSWALD.

P. S. Major Ross has got no copy of Lord Cornwallis's parole. He says it was in the common form, as in like cases.

Since writing the above, I recollect I was under a mistake, as if the proposal of exchange came first from Mr. Laurens; whereas, it was made by his Majesty's Secretaries of State to me, that Mr. Laurens should endeavor to procure the exchange of Lord Cornwallis, so as to be discharged himself. Which proposal I carried to Mr. Laurens, and had from him the obligation abovementioned, upon which the mode of his discharge was settled.

R. O.

TO RICHARD OSWALD.

Passy, June 5th, 1782.

Sir,

I received the letter you did me the honor of writing to me, respecting the parole of Lord Cornwallis. You are acquainted with what I wrote some time since to Mr. Laurens. To-morrow is post day from Holland, when possibly I may receive an answer, with a paper drawn up by him for the purpose of discharging that parole, to be signed by us jointly. I suppose the staying at Paris another day will not be very inconvenient to Major Ross; and if I do not hear to-morrow from Mr. Laurens, I will immediately, in compliance with your request, do what I can towards the liberation of Lord Cornwallis.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

JOHN ADAMS TO B. FRANKLIN.

The Hague, June 13th, 1782.

Sir,

I had yesterday, at Amsterdam, the honor of receiving your Excellency's letter of June the 2d. The discovery that Mr. Grenville's power was only to treat with France does not surprise me at all. The British Ministry are too divided among themselves, and have too formidable an opposition against them, in the King and old Ministers, and are possessed of too little of the confidence of the nation, to have courage to make concessions of any sort, especially since the news of their successes in the East and West Indies. What their vanity will end in God only knows; for my own part, I cannot see a probability that they will ever make peace, until their finances are ruined, and such distresses brought upon them as will work up their parties into a civil war.

I wish their enemies could by any means be persuaded to carry on the war against them in places where they might be sure of triumphs, instead of insisting on pursuing it where they are sure of defeat. But we must take patience, and wait for time to do what wisdom might easily and soon do.

I have not, as yet, taken any engagements with the Dutch not to make peace without them; but I will take such engagements in a moment, if the Dutch will take them, and I believe they would very cheerfully. I shall not propose it, however, till I have the concurrence of the Duc de la Vauguyon, who will do nothing without the instructions of his Court. I would not delay it a moment from any expectation that the English will acknowledge our independence and make peace with us, because I have no such expectations. The permanent friendship of the Dutch may be easily obtained by the United States; that of England, never; it is gone with the days before the flood. If we ever enjoy the smallest degree of sincere friendship again from England, I am totally incapable of seeing the character of a nation or the connexion of things; which, however, may be the case, for what I know. They have brought themselves into such a situation! Spain, Holland, America, the armed neutrality, have all such pretensions and demands upon them, that where is the English Minister, or member

of Parliament, that dares vote for the concession to them? The pretensions of France I believe would be so moderate that possibly they might be acceded to. But it is much to be feared that Spain, who deserves the least, will demand the most; in short, the work of peace appears so impracticable and chimerical, that I am happy in being restrained to this country, by my duty, and by this means excused from troubling my head much about it.

I have a letter from America that informed me that Mr. Jay had refused to act in the Commission for peace; but if he is on the way to Paris, as you suppose, I presume my information must be a mistake, which I am very glad of. Mr. Laurens did me the honor of a very short visit, in his way to France, but I was very sorry to learn from him, that in a letter to your Excellency from Ostend, he had declined serving in the Commission for peace. I had vast pleasure in his conversation, for I found him possessed of the most exact judgment concerning our enemies, and of the same noble sentiment in all things which I saw in him in Congress.

What is the system of Russia? Does she suppose that England has too many enemies upon her, and that their demands and pretensions are too high? Does she seek to embroil affairs, and to light up a general war in Europe? Is Denmark in concert with her, or any other Power? Her conduct is a phenomenon. Is there any secret negociation or intrigue on foot to form a party for England among the Powers of Europe, and to make a balance against the power of the enemies of England?

The States of Holland and several other provinces have taken a resolution against the mediation for a separate peace; and this nation seems to be well fixed in its system, and in the common cause.

My best respects and affections to my old friend, Mr. Jay, if you please. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, JOHN ADAMS.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Dear Sir,

Philadelphia, June 23d, 1782.

This will be sent with duplicates of some of my former letters to

of Great Britain towards America, but imposed reluctantly upon both parties by the conduct of the Court of France.

These thoughts are not suggested with any view of giving any preference in favor of a separate treaty above a general treaty, or above any plans of separate but concomitant treaties, like the treaties of Munster and Osnaburg, but only to draw out the line of negociating a separate treaty, in case the British Ministry should think it necessary to adhere to that mode. But in all cases it should seem indispensable to express some disposition, on the part of Great Britain, to adopt either one mode or the other. An absolute refusal to treat at all, must necessarily drive America into the closest connexion with France, and all other foreign hostile Powers, who would take that advantage for making every possible stipulation to the future disadvantage of British interests, and above all things would probably stipulate that America should never make peace with Great Britain, without the most formal and explicit recognition of their independence, absolute and unlimited.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, May 22d, 1782.

Dear Sir,

I expected to have written you a long letter, more particularly as it is some time since you have received any information from this country, the enemy having effectually blocked up our ports for some months past; but I find myself so extremely hurried, that I have hardly leisure to write this, the vessel by which it is to be sent going sooner than I apprehended.

You will receive herewith a letter to his Most Christian Majesty, which you will present, and a copy, which you will be pleased to deliver to the Count de Vergennes. This I believe is the usual form. You will also receive in the enclosed papers an account of the marks of respect with which the annunciation of the birth of the Dauphin was received. These are of some importance at a time. when Great Britain is endeavoring to represent us as weary of the alliance, and anxiously wishing to return to our connexion with them. It is probable that the late changes in the British Adminis