reconciled, should after the peace unite their interests in such a manner as to become the arbiters of the peace of Europe. In support of this position he told the French Envoy that when formerly Secretary of State he had wished to agree with France to hold a firm and decisive language to Russia and Prussia, and thereby prevent a dismemberment of Poland; but this had been rendered impossible by international enmities. He added that he was especially doubtful of the sincerity of Kaunitz.[1] He ended by saying that there were only three people whose agreement was necessary to secure peace, himself, his interlocutor, and Vergennes.
Thus far the interviews between the negotiators had been satisfactory. Agreement however became more difficult when the Spanish claims, as to which Rayneval at first professed to have no information, came on the tapis. The French Envoy, after a considerable amount of fencing, told Shelburne that Gibraltar was as dear to the King of Spain as life itself, and that if the cession of it were refused, peace would be impossible. Shelburne replied that Gibraltar would no doubt be in the negotiation, what it was in the sea, "a rock"; that he did not believe that the English nation would suffer any minister to surrender it; that such had been the opinion of Mr. Fox, with whom he had discussed the question, since when he had not talked about it; in any case if it were ceded, it would only be in exchange for an adequate equivalent, and Rayneval having suggested that Oran and Mazalquivir would afford such an equivalent, Shelburne refused the proposition altogether, and said that nothing less than Majorca or large cessions in the West Indies would satisfy him. Rayneval demurring to this idea, Shelburne said that his answer on the subject of Gibraltar must be a decided non possumus and that the responsibility
- ↑ In a letter of the 27th July 1782 to Sir James Harris, Ambassador at St. Petersburg, Lord Shelburne expressed himself as follows: "We are ready to make every sacrifice provided the Empress once agrees to commit herself. You must imagine when I say this that we look for something more than words in our actual situation. We wish to avoid the mediation, because we have no confidence in the Court of Vienna, and are ignorant of the private connection which appears to have taken place between the Imperial Courts." Diaries and Correspondence of the Earl of Malmesbury, i. 453-454.
