XII. Provided that the terms of the ceffation of hoftilities may not be prejudicial to either Crown, France will agree to them.

XIII. France adopts the negociation between the India Companies of the two nations, on condition that the negociation fhall be concluded at the fame time with that between the two Crowns, and to that effect, each company fhall enter upon their negociation without delay, and fhall name commiffaries for that purpose.

XIV. This article will meet with no difficulty.

The Court of England will do juftice to the confiderable accommodations which the Court of France has teftified in this memorial towards a reconciliation between the two Crowns.

It may be collected from this memorial, that the first article of the English answer was granted in the full extent which the Court of London required; France only defired eighteen months, instead of a year, for the emigration.

By granting the first part of the fecond article, which cedes the whole current of the Ohio to England, France propofed in regard to the fecond point of that article, to agree upon the nations which fhould be reputed neutral between Canada, Carolina, and Louisiana: This propofi tion was the more reasonable, because that by agreeing on this divifion of the poffeffion of the two nations, an equitable fyftem was adopted, difcuffions about the limits were prevented for the future, and France did not incur the rifk of lofing the colony of Louisiana, whenever it pleased the Court of London to invade it.

England, in her anfwer, perfifted in requiring France to name the poffeffions which the King defired to have on the coaft of Africa. The third article satisfied that demand.

The King, in the fourth article, agreed to the demo. lition of Dunkirk as far as it was poffible; for it will not be practicable, as after the peace of Utrecht, to erect afresh a dam against the fea, which would inevitably carry it away prefently. As to what remained, it was offered to demolish every thing at Dunkirk which had the

appearance

appearance of a military port. Every one must be fenfible how mortifying such a demolition must have been to France.

They agreed that the liberty of fishing in the gulph of St. Lawrence and upon the banks and coafts of Newfoundland, fhould be the compenfation for the demolition of Dunkirk. They accepted the ceffion of the isle of St. Pierre on conditions more than burdenfome: the union of Michelon to St. Pierre was of the leaft confequence, and the D. de Choifeul even affured Mr. Stanley that fuch a ceffion would not be infifted on.

It is true the King rejected the inspection of the English Admiral, and that his Majefty was refolved rather to refufe the poffeffion of St. Pierre than to agree to such an infpection, which was useless for the maintaining the stipulations of the treaty, and injurious to the dignity of the French nation, as that condition feemed to be propofed only with a view to manifeft, on the part of England, an ill-timed fuperiority.

The other articles of the French memorial explain of themfelves, with fufficient precifion, the fincere and pacific intentions of his Majefty.

The eighth and ninth articles of the answer of Enghand could not be agreed to in the form they stood; they required, at least, especially the laft, fome explanation : For how could the King caufe Germany to be evacuated by his forces, and at the fame time fulfil his engagement with the powers of the empire his allies? There was a manifeft contradiction of this propofition. One might suppose that England intended, by the ninth article, that France, after having evacuated Weftphalia, fhould be at liberty to dispatch forces into Bohemia or Saxony to the aid of the Emprefs-Queen. But not to mention that fuch a march would have been as difficult as deftructive to the King's army, is it probable that his Majefty, however clofely he may he connected with that Princess, should abandon his poffeffions in Germany, conquered from his real enemies, to march his armies at a diftance from his frontiers, without any communication, fend his troops to the aid of this ally, and make war upon the King of Pruffia, who is not his direct enemy !.

Such

Such, nevertheless, was the propofition of England. The King, in his memorial, repeated what he had said before, that the two Crowns fhould equally remain at peace in Germany as in the other parts of the world, or that England should propofe fome plain and honourable method to conciliate his Majefty's good faith towards his allies, with his Majefty's defire of contributing no farther to the war in Germany.

M. de Buffy remitted the memorial of the 9th of September to Mr. Pitt on the 13th of the fame month, and without having received any answer to that memorial on the part of the British Court, Mr. Stanley wrote to the D. de Choiseul the following letter, and received the answer underneath on the fame day..

Mr. Stanley's Letter to the Duke de Choifeul, of the 20th September, 1761.

I

SIR,

HAVE the honour to inform your Excellency, purfuant to the orders I received yesterday from my Court, that as the Court of France has not agreed to accept the propofitions contained in the laft anfwer from the British Court, the King my master has ordered me to request a paffport of you to return to England; my Court expects alfo, that M. Buffy will, on his part, receive the fame orders.

As the state of war has no influence over the perfonal fentiments of the King of England, with regard to their Moft Chriftian Majefties, he is perfuaded that they will take part in the event of his marriage, and I have letters in my hands by which he communicates that happy event to their Majefties. I have the honour to fend your Excellency the copies, and I take the liberty, Sir, to confult your better intelligence, to inform myself of the most fuitable manner of remitting these letters, in purfuance of my credentials, and according to the established custom of your Court.

I have the honour to be, &c.

Signed H. STANLEY.

The

The Duke de Choiseul's Answer to Mr. Stanley, of the 20th of September, 1761.

SIR,

TH

HE King has ordered me, Sir, to expedite the paffports which are neceffary for your return to England: you will find them annexed. M. Buffy had orders to demand an eclairciffement with refpect to the last anfwer from England, and to return to France if those eclairciffements were not favourable. They have certainly been otherwife, fince your Court has anticipated his return by your récal. However it be, Sir, his Majefty hopes that fome more happy opportunity will produce more effectual inclinations to peace, and he has charged me to obferve to you, that you may affure the King of England, that he will always find him disposed to renew the negociation, and to confent to equitable conditions which may establish a firm union between the two Crowns.

The King moft fincerely takes part in the marriage of the King of England; if you will fend me the letters from his British Majefty, I will remit them to their Majefties.

I have the honour to be, &c.
Signed

Le Duc de CHOISEUL.

At the fame time M. de Buffy understood at London, that a courier had been dispatched to recal Mr. Stanley, he explained himself on that occafion; and after the British Ministry had confirmed the fact, he defired, agreeable to the orders he had received, the neceffary paffports to return to France.

Thus the negociation between the two Crowns has been broken off. They who talk fo readily, and upon all occafions, that we must make peace, do not confider, that however well difpofed a Sovereign may be for the re-establishment of tranquillity, his defire cannot be effectual: but when it is equally fincere on the part of the other belligerant powers; and it will be admitted, on reading

this

this memorial, that the King has omitted nothing to come to an accommodation; no one can fay, that his Majefty's allies have occafioned the rupture of the negociation. It has been proved, that the war which the King maintains in Weftphalia, is a war purely English, that it brings no advantage either to the Empreffes, or to Sweden, or to Saxony; befides, the propofition made by France, not to afford any fuccours, either direct or indirect, to her allies in Germany, evidently demonstrates, that the war in Weftphalia neither has been, nor could be, an impediment to the

peace.

England and fome other courts would pretend, that the engagements of the King with his Catholik Majefty, and the propofition made by France, to conciliate the diffe rences of Spain with England at the fame time with those which were the principal object of the negociation, hadi fo difgufted the Court of London, that for that reafon: only the refused the terms for the conclufion of peace.. It is true, as has been fhewn already, that the British Minister haughtily rejected the expedient, which his Majefty's prudent precaution induced him to fuggeft to England, with a view to conclude a firm peace, and to entirely obviate all obftacles which might oppose the continuance of that tranquillity which his Majefty la-> boured to re-establish it is true, likewife, that fince the first memorial of France, there was no farther notice of the differences of Spain in the propofition made by the Court of Verfailles to that of London: his Catholick Majefty has even declared to the King, that if the ob jects which concerned the Spanish monarchy fhould embarrass the negociation and retard the peace, he agreed a that those points fhould be no farther negociated on the part of his Majefty. In fact, to repeat it once more, fince the first memorial of France, there has been no more mention of Spain. It cannot be imagined, there-fore, that the interefts of his Majesty's allies have proved an obftacle to the pacification. It remains, therefore, to examine whether the negociation has been broken off with respect to the articles which are the subjects of the par ticular difcuffion between the two crowns.

It

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