Several long interviews took place between this formidable envoy and Shelburne, who was accompanied by Grantham. In these Shelburne told Rayneval, that he would trust him as he would M. de Vergennes himself; that he desired to borrow the words attributed to the latter, "un paix stable non platrée"; that he confessed that he had opposed American independence, as long as it was possible to do so; that it was even now a bitter pill to swallow; but that he must submit to his fate; that except upon that topic, he had as yet given no reply to the propositions of M. de Grasse; at the same time he perfectly understood that the concession of American independence alone would not satisfy France, as Mr. Fox had supposed. There ought to be no difficulty, he added, as to the cession of St. Lucia and Dominica, nor as to the rights of the French fishermen off Newfoundland, the abrogation of the clauses in former treaties relating to Dunkirk, the claims of the French on the coast of Africa, and the settlement of the commercial relations of the two countries on a liberal footing, such as had been aimed at by the eighth and ninth clauses of the Treaty of Utrecht. It must however, he explained, be distinctly understood, that England would admit no claim of sovereignty on the part of France over any part of the Island of Newfoundland, or the establishment of any post, civil or military, within its limits; and upon this point Grantham insisted with an earnestness which, as Rayneval wrote to Vergennes, was unusual in him.[1] Senegal also was not under any circumstances to be held to include the settlements on the Gambia, and England would not surrender Trincomalee. Shelburne also expressed a hope that France would not exercise the right of restoring the fortifications of Dunkirk, as English pride would not suffer "a pistol to be pointed at the mouth of the Thames"; and he also expressed a belief that the abrogation of the clauses of previous treaties on that subject ought to be couched in
- ↑ "I am very fearful my newness and caution may be misinterpreted and my necessary reserve may be called ministerial. Indeed I know I was thought when I wrote from Spain to be dry." Lord Grantham to Sir James Harris, July 28th, 1782. Malmesiury Correspondence, i. 455.
