in actual possession, the English Cabinet absolutely refused to surrender; they also rejected the demands made by the Dutch Plenipotentiaries, and offered in their place the renewal of the Treaties subsisting with the Republic at the time of the rupture, and a restitution of all the places taken from them in the war except Trincomalee. The determination of the Cabinet on these points was announced in a despatch from Grantham to Fitzherbert;[1] while Shelburne, feeling that, as the King said, the chances of peace "began to look desperate,"[2] wrote in the following terms to the English Envoy:—
"The subject of Lord Grantham's courier is too serious for me, to suffer him to go without adding a few words to his despatch. He will have assured you of the matter of fact, that the restoration of Dominique was essentially combined with the Spanish Peace in our propositions. I may tell you in confidence, that it was myself who made the proposition to Council. I can with equal truth assure you that every person present understood it so.
"M. de Rayneval must do me the justice to say, I explained it to him in that light, as soon as I saw him afterwards; and yesterday we proceeded without hesitation upon his intimation that our offer was accepted, to explain ourselves on other matters; which we certainly should not have done, if we had conjectured that so essential a part of our offer was misunderstood. Lord Grantham will explain to you every other particular, likewise all the official reasoning: upon which I can only add, that it is not the reasoning of party, nor of popular prejudice, but the conviction in reference to all our commerce and Navy, that the object in question can never materially affect France, but must decide on all our possessions in those parts.
"The matter will therefore stand thus. In the one case, the whole peace may be considered ipso facto as concluded; the magnanimity and justice of H. M. C.
