ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a pamphlet which sets out the detailed terms of the provisional peace treaties that Lord Shelburne's ministry had negotiated with the Unites States, France and Spain and was in the process of negotiating with the Dutch Republic. These preliminary treaties ran into very considerable difficulty in Parliament, even from some politicians who had long opposed the war with America and who had urged the need for peace. The author of the pamphlet examines all the major terms of these preliminary treaties and maintains, with some justice, that they were probably the best that could be obtained in the difficult circumstances facing Britain. He points out that Lord North's ministry had produced a succession of disasters across the world and that there was no real desire in Parliament or the nation for a continuation of the war. Shelburne was very much preoccupied with renewing Britain's commercial links with America.
