Flottes, ni les difficultés intérieures, que j'ai à combattre ici, n'auront l'effet de porter aucun changement (autant qu'il dépend de moi) dans les sentimens que je vous ai temoignés pour terminer la guerre par un accommodement honorable et modéré."[1]
The views of the English Cabinet were placed before Vergennes and D'Aranda by Fitzherbert. He soon found the effect of the victory at Gibraltar, and that except in regard to Dominica there would be no difficulty of any magnitude with France, who withdrew from her demand of the Circars and Masulipatam, and of an exclusive right of fishery off Newfoundland, on condition that England should agree "ministériellement" to secure an uninterrupted enjoyment of their occupation to the French fishermen, by means of instructions given to the Colonial Governors.[2] Vergennes also at first seemed disinclined to support the extreme demands of Spain, who now evidently despaired of obtaining Gibraltar except by negotiation, and for a fair equivalent. He said that the conduct of that country "was like that of a petty shopkeeper, who thinks that the only way to get a fair price for his goods is to begin by asking ten times more than they are worth"; and he added in the same strain of derision, that "he thought the best method we could follow in order to shame them out of so paltry a manner of proceeding was to act the more dignified part of the respectable wholesale merchant, and deliver in, at a single word, the terms which we were resolved at all events to adhere to."[3]
On the Court of Madrid however standing firm, Vergennes abruptly assumed a different attitude, and seemed to Fitzherbert to carry the matter even further than D'Aranda; saying that peace with Spain could not be made without the cession of Gibraltar. D'Aranda being pressed on the point by Fitzherbert, said he would give anything in exchange for it except one of the limbs of Spain. Being asked what he understood by that expression, he said that it included Porto Rico, which George
