American land forces had been the efficient cause of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Such co-operation would in future be difficult, if not impossible. The universal joy in England was only tempered by the indignation felt against the politicians who had wished to replace him. A few days earlier the news of the capture of Ceylon, the principal Dutch settlement, had also arrived. Fortune seemed to smile once more on the flag of Great Britain. The Ministry were now more than ever inclined to persevere in their policy of separating France from America, and while conceding independence to the latter, to refuse to yield to the arrogant pretensions of the Power whose navy they had just destroyed. On the 23rd of May accordingly the Cabinet agreed to take Vergennes at his word and to instruct Grenville, in negotiating with France, to propose the acknowledgment by England of the independence of America "in the first instance,"[1] i.e. that England should negotiate with America directly, instead of through France, as first proposed. "Independence was to be the dreadful price offered to America" for peace, said the King;[2] and he was only brought to accede to the plan of the Cabinet by the persuasions of Shelburne, who explained that the object of it was either to obtain a general peace thereby, or else to separate the Americans from their allies.[3]
"On Mr. Oswald's return," says the Duke of Grafton, "it was Mr. Fox's wish to have placed the whole negotiation with any of the Powers at war into the hands of Mr. Grenville; but the Cabinet decided that, as the Doctor desired Mr. Oswald's return, to whom he had spoken with openness and freedom, it would be impolitic not to comply with a request of this nature. Besides it was not yet fully known in what light our offers to treat might be received by the French Ministry. The line of our proposals was independence for America, and the restitution of matters to the state in which they stood on
