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144 sidered. I own I incline to the more decisive measure, and so, I think, do those with whom I must act in concert."

Two points are definitely raised in the above letter: the Canada paper, and Shelburne's intention to appoint Oswald to be Commissioner to treat with America. The first of these has already been discussed. As regards the second, it is to be observed in the first place that the informal negotiations with America had hitherto been carried on by Oswald in the same way as those with France had been carried on by Grenville; and just as the latter had ended in the formal appointment of Grenville as plenipotentiary, nothing was more natural than for the former to lead up to the appointment of Oswald. "I apprehended," Grenville wrote in reply to Fox, "that Lord Shelburne might have already expressed such an intention to the rest of the King's Ministers, upon the ground of the American share of this business, which ground, in the present stage of it, I thought possibly you had not found it easy to object to. In this idea you will find that I have written, and in this idea it was that Lord Fitzwilliam's appointment occurred to me, not to prevent a clandestine negotiation, but to unite a separated one."

The position of Shelburne as Secretary of State clearly entitled him to negotiate with America. This was perfectly understood by Vergennes. "Mr. Oswald," he says, "was the envoy of Lord Shelburne. He has no commission for me, because that Secretary of State had America and Ireland in his department, while Mr. Fox is charged with the affairs of Europe." The presence of Oswald in Paris was perfectly well known to the French Court, to the English Cabinet, to Fox himself, and to Franklin.

On the 3rd of June previous to the reply of Franklin the appointment of Oswald was a mere intention; whether it was to become more depended solely on the wishes of Franklin, of which Shelburne was as yet uninformed. There is no reason to suppose that if Franklin had