ion of the Canada bills, was concluded under the administration
of 1766; when nothing was concluded under that of the favorites of this
author.

2. This transaction was, in every step of it, carried on in concert with
the persons interested, and was terminated to their entire satisfaction.
They would have acquiesced perhaps in terms somewhat lower than those
which were obtained. The author is indeed too kind to them. He will,
however, let them speak for themselves, and show what their own opinion
was of the measures pursued in their favor.[96] In what manner the
execution of the convention has been since provided for, it is not my
present business to examine.

3. The proprietors had absolutely despaired of being paid, at any time,
any proportion, of their demand, until the change of that ministry. The
merchants were checked and discountenanced; they had often been told, by
some in authority, of the cheap rate at which these Canada bills had
been procured; yet the author can talk of the composition of them as a
necessity induced by the change in administration. They found themselves
indeed, before that change, under a necessity of hinting somewhat of
bringing the matter into Parliament; but they were soon silenced, and
put in mind of the fate which the Newfoundland business had there met
with. Nothing struck them more than the strong contrast between the
spirit, and method of proceeding, of the two administrations.

4. The Earl of Halifax never did, nor could, refuse to sign this
convention; because this convention, as it stands, never was before
him.[97]

The author's last charge on that ministry, with regard to foreign
affairs, is the Russian treaty of commerce, which the author thinks fit
to assert, was concluded "on terms the Earl of Buckinghamshire had
refused to accept of, and which had been deemed by former ministers
disadvantageous to the nation, and by the merchants unsafe and
unprofitable."[98]

Both the assertions in this paragraph are equally groundless. The treaty
then concluded by Sir George Macartney was not on the terms which the
Earl of Buckinghamshire had refused. The Earl of Buckinghamshire never
did refuse terms, because the business never came to the point of
refusal, or acceptance; all that he did was, to receive the Russian
project for a treaty of commerce, and to transmit it to England. This
was in November, 1764; and he left Petersburg the January following,
before he could even receive an