but was not so hopeful as Strachey in regard to his colleagues.[1]
Such was the position of affairs in the middle of November when Rayneval returned to France and Strachey to England. As the moment approached when the tie between the Colonies and England was about to be formally severed, George III. grew more and more restive. "I am too much agitated," he wrote to Shelburne, "with a fear of sacrificing the interests of my country by hurrying it on too fast, which indeed has been uppermost in my thoughts since the beginning of the war, that I am unable to add anything on that subject, but the most frequent prayers to heaven to guide me so to act, that posterity may not lay the downfall of this once respectable Empire at my door; and that if ruin should attend the measures that may be adopted, I may not long survive them. … I cannot conclude without mentioning how sensibly I feel the dismemberment of America from the Empire, and that I should be miserable indeed if I did not feel that no blame on that account can be laid to my door, and did I not also know that knavery seems to be so much the striking feature of the inhabitants, that it may not in the end be an evil that they will become aliens to this Kingdom."[2]
With a full appreciation of the difficulties that arose from the attitude of the King, Shelburne met his Cabinet. Richmond and Keppel were very bitter against Oswald, who they declared was only an additional American negotiator, and they proposed to recall him. This Shelburne and Townshend refused to do, as they especially desired that Oswald should be in Paris to negotiate a commercial treaty, as soon as the necessary Acts of Parliament had been passed. The main question however they had to settle was what course they would pursue in regard to the Loyalists. Shelburne had very strong opinions of his own on the question, and the public voice demanded in no
