he had himself made in a previous conversation, that the cession of the back lands of Canada might be accompanied by a stipulation in their favour. As to the difference between the grant of independence by a separate public act and the expression of it in the clauses of the treaty, he did not seem to Oswald to attach much importance, so long as it was expressly included in the commission to be given to Oswald. At the same time he distinctly intimated that Independence full, complete, and unconditional, would alone satisfy his principals.[1]
Hardly however had Oswald conveyed the above information to Shelburne, and followed it up by an expression of his own belief that Franklin was anxious for a settlement without allowing himself to be hampered by any particular attention to the views of France, before he had to write again to warn Shelburne that the whole negotiation was imperilled by the conduct of Grenville. When Fox resigned, Grenville thought fit to resign also, though Shelburne had been anxious that he should remain at his post. Mr. Fitzherbert, English Minister at Brussels, was appointed his successor in Paris. Before leaving Paris however Fox's Envoy shot a Parthian dart behind him, spreading abroad a report that it was not the intention of Shelburne to grant independence to America, and consequently that the negotiation would fail.[2] His language made Franklin demand that some express acknowledgment should be given independently of the treaty itself of the recognition by England of the independence of the United States.[3] "Until it is made," he wrote to Oswald, "and the treaty formally begun, propositions and discussions seem on consideration to be untimely."
On receiving this intelligence from Oswald, Shelburne at once wrote as follows:—
"I know the correctness of my own conduct, and that it can stand every test. A French minister might
