terms such as would spare the just susceptibilities of the King of England;[1] it would require an Act of Parliament to enable the English Ministry to negotiate a liberal commercial treaty, and the treaty of Peace between the two countries could consequently touch on that question in but very general terms. On none of these points did the negotiators foresee any obstacle which further pourparlers could not easily remove; and it was not until they arrived at the article of India that any material difference of opinion arose. Rayneval demanded that France should be restored to the position in which she stood in 1754. Shelburne firmly refused to entertain any such proposal. To enfranchise Dunkirk, to cede what France asked for on the coast of Africa and off Newfoundland, to allow the fortification of Chandernagore, was he said as much as any English Minister would dare to propose; more was impossible. A further discussion of the question led Rayneval to qualify his demands, and it was agreed that, more especially as the propositions now being advanced by the French Minister were all to be considered as having an unofficial character, the ultimate settlement of the French Establishments in India might be safely left to be settled at Versailles.
On the question of the doctrines contained in the declaration of the Armed Neutrality, Shelburne announced that he would under no circumstances make any concession, and this led to a declaration of his views on the proposed mediation of the Northern Courts. He declared that England had no need of their interference; that he could not conceive what the Kaunitzs and the Potemkins could understand about the affairs of Western Europe, considering the great difficulty which Western statesmen had in understanding the affairs of the North. He went on to tell Rayneval that he set no value whatever on the alliance of the Northern Courts; that he was astonished that they should be allowed to play any part at all; that he was of opinion that France and England being
- ↑ Admiral Lord Hawke subsequently stated that Dunkirk could not be made really formidable to this country. See infra, p. 239.
