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Rh left on the mind of Rochfort was that France, alarmed at the unexpected display of vigour on the part of England, and being herself utterly unprepared, would yield. "Peace is certainly their present object," he wrote to Shelburne. "The very alarm the whole French nation is in at this moment is a strong voucher how much they dread a war, and it may be added that the Due de Choiseul is personally interested to prevent it." "I do not believe," he went on to say, "that in any other situation than that they are in at present, they would have taken so soft a tone, and your Lordship sees how apprehensive they are of what the King keeps to himself in reserve, when the contents of the Treaty shall be known."

On the 18th of June Shelburne received a copy of the definitive Treaty, which he at once submitted to the Cabinet.

It was their unanimous opinion that it served only to confirm the idea that an absolute cession of the Island of Corsica to the French was intended. "I had a long conversation after the Cabinet," Shelburne wrote to Rochfort, "with the Count du Châtelet, with a view to discover if possible the motives of such a step. But hitherto his instructions do not appear to go beyond the arguments which have been already used to your Excellency, such as the right both France and Genoa have to conclude a Treaty between themselves as independent States, without

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