Grenville, pointed out that it was part of the irony of events that the son of the author of the Stamp Act should be the chosen mediator of the peace which was to terminate the war.[1]
Fox suspected Shelburne of wishing to keep the negotiations not only with America but with France also in his own hands. In this however he was mistaken.[2] The King had indeed suggested to Shelburne that Oswald "might be a useful check on that part of the negotiation which was in other hands."[3] To this suggestion however Shelburne paid no attention, and he carefully concealed it from Oswald. Nobody could in any case have been more unfit both by character and habits for engaging in a diplomatic intrigue than Oswald, whose simplicity of mind and straightforwardness of character struck all who knew him, nor had Shelburne himself any wish to intrigue against Fox, as appears from the following episode.
Mr. Thomas Walpole was at this time in Paris, having been sent thither by Fox to negotiate with the French Government, in regard to the questions arising in respect of the property of British merchants at St. Eustatia, which had been recaptured by French privateers after the capture of the island by Rodney. He seems to have considered himself Commissioner designate to the French Government, and thought himself aggrieved by the mission of Oswald, as he subsequently did by that of Grenville, and accused Shelburne of intriguing against him. Being informed of his feelings, Shelburne at once sent explanations on the subject to Oswald. "It has reached me," he writes, "that Mr. Walpole esteems himself much injured by your going to Paris, and that he conceives it was a measure of mine
- ↑ Walpole Correspondence, viii. 222.
- ↑ The evidence on this point is as follows: On April 28th Fox writes to Mr. Fitzpatrick, "Upon the pretence of the business having begun with the American ministers, Shelburne had a great mind if I had consented to have kept even this negotiation in his own hands." On the same day however Shelburne writes to Franklin, "It is also determined that Mr. Fox, from whose department that communication is necessarily to proceed, shall send a proper person." Shelburne to Franklin, April 28th, 1782; Franklin's Works, viii. 483.
- ↑ The King to Shelburne, April 27th, 1782.
