beheld the increase of the public debt. The reestablishment of the marine, expeditions in distant countries, the capture of several convoys which it had been necessary to replace, such were at first the charges which consumed the royal treasure. The Americans, afterwards, deprived in a great measure of all revenue by the slowness with which taxes were paid in their country, authorised themselves from the insufficiency of their means to present incessantly new demands to the court of Versailles. After having permitted the farmers-general to lend them a million of livres, after having guaranteed the loans which they had negotiated in Holland, Lewis XVI. had advanced them himself eighteen millions, and they still solicited six others. The French, at this epoch, had applied themselves with singular ardor to the extension of their commerce. The war had proved extremely prejudicial to it, and the merchants who had been the greatest sufferers could no longer hope to retrieve their losses, but by the cessation of hostilities. All these considerations led to a general opinion, that to the possibility of concluding an honorable peace, was added the expediency and even the necessity of so doing.

As to Spain, the hope of conquering Gibraltar and Jamaica had been annihilated by the fatal days of the twelfth of April and the thirteenth of September. The continuation of the war with a view to these two objects, would therefore have been rather the effect of obstinacy than of constancy. On the other hand, the court of Madrid. had acquired by its arms the province of West Florida and the island of Minorca. As England had no compensation to offer it for these two acquisitions, it was natural to think that a treaty of peace would confirm the possession of them to Spain. Though her views had been aimed much higher, these advantages were at least sufficient to prevent the Spaniards from complaining that they had taken part in the war without any personal interest, and through mere complaisance. It had never ceased to excite general surprise that the court of Madrid should have furnished fuel to a conflagration which might become so fatal to itself, in taking part in a war whose professed object was that of establishing an independent republic in the immediate vicinity of her Mexican possessions. The contagion of example, the seduction of novelty, the natural proclivity of men to shake off the yoke, afforded without doubt reasonable grounds of apprehension and alarm. But if Spain had interfered in this great quarrel against her particular interests, she would have been doubly blameable in lavishing so much blood and treasure to prolong it, especially since the possession of Minorca and West Florida secured her honorable conditions. This power therefore inclined also towards the general pacification.

It remains for us to cast a glance upon the Dutch. Following their allies at a distance, rather than marching at their side, they were constrained by their position to will whatever France willed. It was

only from that power, and not from their own forces, that they could expect the termination of their disquietudes. If they had recovered St. Eustatius and Demerary, were they not indebted for it entirely to the arms of the king of France? They wished therefore for peace, since experience had taught them that war could yield them no advantage, and that it is never more detrimental than to a people whose existence is founded upon commerce.

To this inclination for peace, manifested at the same time by all the belligerent powers, was added the mediation of the two most powerful princes of Europe; the empress of Russia and the emperor of Germany. Their intervention was accepted with unanimous consent; every thing verged towards a general peace.

Thus, towards the close of the present year, the negotiations at Paris were pushed with mutual ardor. The English and Americans were the first to come to an accommodation. They signed, the thirtieth of November, a provisional treaty, which was to be definitive and made public, as soon as France and Great Britain should have adjusted their differences. The most important conditions of this treaty were, that the king of England acknowledged the liberty, sovereignty and independence of the thirteen United States of America, which were all named successively; that his Britannic majesty renounced, as well for himself, as for his heirs and successors, all rights whatever over the government, property or territory, of the said states. In order to prevent any occasion for complaints on either side upon the subject of limits, imaginary lines of boundary were agreed upon, which brought within the territory of the United States immense countries, lakes and rivers, to which, up to that time, they had never pretended any sort of claim. For, besides the vast and fertile countries situated upon the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi, the limits of the United States embraced a part of Canada and Nova Scotia; an acquisition which admitted the Americans to participate in the fur trade. Some Indian nations, which had hitherto existed under the domination of the English, and especially the Six Tribes, who had always adhered to their party and alliance, were now included in the new territory of the United States. The English were to evacuate and restore all the parts which they still occupied, such as New York, Long Island, Staten Island, Charleston, Penobscot and all their dependencies. There was no mention made of Savannah, as the evacuation of that place and of all Georgia by the English, had already left it entirely in the power of Congress.

The Americans were also secured by the treaty of peace in the right of fishing on the banks of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and all other places where the two nations had been accustomed to carry on fishery before the rupture. It was expressly stipulated, that the Congress should recommend to the different states that they should decree the restitution of all confiscated effects,

estates and property whatsoever, as well to British subjects as to those among the Americans who had adhered to the party of England. It was agreed, besides, that such individuals could not be questioned or prosecuted for any thing which they had said or done in favor of Great Britain. These last articles displeased certain zealous republicans, and became the object of vehement declamations. on their part. They little reflected how vengeance, at first so sweet, may prove bitter in the result. The loyalists were not any more satisfied; galled at seeing their fate depend on a mere recommendation, which might have effect or not, according to the good pleasure of the several states, they complained of the ingratitude of England, who unworthily abandoned them to chance. Animated discussions also arose in parliament relative to this point. The party in opposition represented in glowing colors the infamy with which the ministers were about to cover the name of England, in suffering those who had served her to become the prey of their persecutors. It seemed to have been forgotten that in these political convulsions it is necessary to have regard rather to what is possible or advantageous, than to that which is merely just and honorable. Every man who takes part in a civil conflict, must expect, sooner or later, to submit to this common law. Exclusively occupied with its great interests, the State deigns not even to perceive those of individuals. Its own preservation is the sole object of its cares; for it the public good is every thing, private utility nothing. Upon the adoption of these bases, it was agreed that hostilities, whether by land or sea, should cease immediately between Great Britain and America.

1783. The preliminaries of peace between France and England were signed at Versailles on the twentieth of January 1783, by the count de Vergennes, minister of foreign affairs, and M. Fitz Herbert, minister plenipotentiary of his Britannic majesty. England acquired thereby an extension of her right of fishery upon the banks of Newfoundland. But she restored to France in full property the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. She likewise restored her the island of St. Lucia, and ceded her that of Tobago. On the other hand, France restored to England the island of Grenada, with the Grenadines, Dominica, St. Vincent, St. Christopher, Nevis and Montserrat. In the East Indies, France recovered possession of Pondicherry, and Karical, and all her other establishments in Bengal and upon the coast of Orixa. Still other concessions of no little importance were made her, relating to trade and the right of fortifying different places. But an article singularly honorable for France, was that by which England consented to consider as entirely annulled all stipulations which had been made in regard to the port of Dunkirk, since the peace of Utrecht, in 1713.

The court of London ceded to that of Madrid the island of Minorca and the two Floridas. It obtained, at the same time, the restitution

of the Bahama islands; a restitution which was afterwards found superfluous, since colonel Deveaux had just reconquered those islands with a handful of men, equipped at his own expense. These preliminaries were converted into a definitive treaty of peace the third of September, 1783. It was signed on the part of France by the count de Vergennes, and on that of Spain, by the count d' Aranda, and in behalf of England, by the duke of Manchester. The definitive treaty between Great Britain and the United States was signed the same day at Paris, by David Hartley on one part, and by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, on the other. On the preceding day had likewise been concluded, at Paris, the separate treaty between Great Britain and the States-General of Holland ; the duke of Manchester stipulating in the name of his Britannic majesty, and M. Van Berkenroode and M. Bransten, in behalf of their high mightinesses. The court of London restored to the Dutch their establishment of Trincomale; but they ceded to the English the city of Negapatam with its dependencies.

Notwithstanding all the pomp with which the allied courts had affected to assert the maritime rights of neutrals, no mention whatever was made in these different treaties of so important a point of public

law.

Such was the issue of the long struggle undertaken for the cause of America. If may it be supposed, that the colonists had for a long time sought an opportunity to throw off the yoke, it must be admitted also, that the English were themselves the first to excite them to it. Their rigorous laws irritated, instead of restraining; the insufficiency of their military force, and the versatility of their measures, did but the more imbolden the resistance of the Americans. The war which ensued, was carried on, as civil wars have usually been, often with valor, always with desperation, and sometimes with barbarity. Between the English, on the contrary, and the other European nations which they had to combat, the reciprocal demonstrations of prowess received new lustre from that humanity and courtesy which eminently characterise the age in which we live. The Congress and the Americans in general, displayed the most extraordinary constancy; the British ministers perhaps merited the reproach of obstinacy, and the cabinet of France distinguished itself by the singular sagacity of its policy.

From these different causes resulted the foundation in the New World of a Republic, happy within by its constitution, pacific by its character, respected and courted abroad for the abundance of its resources. So far as it is possible to judge of sublunary things, from the extent and fertility of its territory, and the rapid increase of its population, it is destined, at no distant day, to become a vast, and exceedingly powerful state. To consolidate their work, and render its duration eternal, the Americans have only two things to avoid.

The one is, that moral depravation which too commonly results from an excessive love of gain; the other is, the losing sight of those principles upon which the edifice is founded. May they at least return to them promptly, if the ordinary course of human events should introduce disorder and decay into that admirable system of government which they have established!

With the exception of an affair of little importance in which colonel Laurens was slain, and the evacuation of Charleston, nothing had passed upon the American continent, deserving of particular attention. As soon as the preliminaries of peace were known there, the public joy manifested itself, but with much less enthusiasm however than might naturally be supposed. Peace had for a long time been looked upon as certain; and man enjoys more calmly the possession of happiness itself, than the hopes which precede it. New apprehensions, besides, soon arose to cloud the horizon; a secret fire menaced a conflagration, and at the very moment in which peace disarmed external enemies, an intestine war appeared ready to rend the republic. The pay of the army was excessively in arrear; the greater part of the officers had spent in the service of the state, not only all they were possessed of, but also the fortunes of their friends. They were very apprehensive that the resolutions of October, 1780, by which Congress had granted them half pay for a certain tern of years, would not be carried into effect. They had therefore deputed a committee of officers, to solicit the attention of Congress to this subject. Their instructions were, to press the immediate payment of the money actually due, the commutation of the half pay above mentioned for a sum in gross, and the indemnification of the officers for the sums which they had been compelled to advance in consequence of the failure of their rations. Some security that the engagements of the government would be complied with, was also to be requested. But whether because a part of the members of Congress were little disposed to favor the army, or that others were desirous that the particular states, and not the federal treasury, should support the burthen of these gratifications, nothing was decided. Discouraged at this slowness, the deputies wrote to the army. The other public creditors manifested no less disquietude than the officers. They foresaw plainly that the ordinary revenue would be altogether inadequate to the payment of the sums that were due to them; and they were equally convinced of the repugnance which the states would have to impose new taxes for the purpose of raising the means to satisfy their demands. The discontent of, the first and of the second was extreme, they already anticipated their total ruin.

The American government at this epoch, was divided in two parties; one was sincerely disposed to do ample justice to the public creditors generally, and to this end they desired the establishment of a general tax; they labored to fund the public debts on solid con

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