Majesty will be acknowledged through the whole of the negotiation; the positions established by the Count de Vergennes at the commencement of the treaty will be adopted; every good consequence will be to be expected, notwithstanding what we must naturally feel from the loss of the grand source of our wealth, industry and power in this peace; good humour, confidence and unanimity, will result; so far, at least, as regards this great business. In the case of Dominique being insisted on, the Spanish Peace will be to be reconsidered, the terms altered, the time and issue made uncertain, the whole made doubtful; and distrust, suspicion, regret, and division arise."[1]
On the English terms becoming known in France, great differences of opinion at once made themselves felt. The King, acting under the influence of his own benevolent nature, and Vergennes accepting the inevitable, now that he was deserted by his American allies, united to urge Spain and Holland to desist from their unreasonable pretensions. Louis XVI., according to Fitzherbert, was convinced during every stage of the negotiation, how great an obstacle the cession of Gibraltar would prove in the way of a pacification, and it was through his intervention that the King of Spain now made up his mind to accept the Floridas as an equivalent.[2] The Dutch withdrew from their demand of a preliminary recognition by England of the principles of the Armed Neutrality, and the negotiation was started on the basis of the restitution by England of all her territorial conquests, with the exception of either Trincomalee or Negapatam, and of the
- ↑ Shelburne to Fitzherbert, December 20th, 1782.
- ↑ By a secret and supplementary article of the Treaty, it was provided that should Great Britain recover West Florida, in the Treaty to be negotiated with Spain, the northern boundary of West Florida should be a line running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo river to the Chattahoochee, instead of the line drawn due cast from the intersection of a line drawn along the middle of the Mississippi, with the 31st degree of north latitude, to the middle of the river Chattahoochee (also called Apalichicola), which was laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty with the United States. Great Britain did not recover West Florida, but the discovery of the secret article by Spain in 1786, when the boundary between Spain and the United States was being fixed, and Spain claimed that the boundary should start from the Yazoo, very nearly had serious consequences to the solidity of the United States, owing to marked differences of opinion between the New England States and the Southern States as to how far it was worth while to resist the Spanish claims (see Fiske, The Critical Period cf American History, 208-211) even at the risk of war.
