the cabinet. Already negotiations
for a general peace had begun at Paris; but Washington, who eagerly
desired the end of the war, did not yet feel any confidence. "The old
infatuation, the political duplicity and perfidy of England, render me, I
confess, very suspicious, very doubtful," he wrote; "and her position
seems to me to be perfectly summed up in the laconic saying of Dr.
Franklin 'They are incapable of continuing the war and too proud to make
peace.' The pacific overtures made to the different belligerent nations
have probably no other design than to detach some one of them from the
coalition. At any rate, whatever be the enemy's intentions, our
watchfulness and our efforts, so far from languishing, should become more
vigorous than ever. Too much trust and confidence would ruin
everything."

America was the first to make peace, without however detaching herself
officially from the coalition which had been formed to maintain her
quarrel and from which she had derived so many advantages. On the 30th
of November, 1782, in disregard of the treaties but lately concluded
between France and the revolted colonies, the American negotiators signed
with stealthy precipitation the preliminary articles of a special peace,
"thus abandoning France to the dangers of being isolated in negotiations
or in arms." The votes of Congress, as well as the attitude of
Washington, did not justify this disloyal and ungrateful eagerness.
"The articles of the treaty between Great Britain and America," wrote the
general to Chevalier de La Luzerne, French minister at Philadelphia, "are
so far from conclusive as regards a general pacification, that we must
preserve a hostile attitude and remain ready for any contingency, for war
as well as peace."

On the 5th of December, at the opening of Parliament, George III.
announced in the speech from the throne that he had offered to recognize
the independence of the American colonies. "In thus admitting their
separation from the crown of this kingdom, I have sacrificed all my
desires to the wishes and opinion of my people," said the king.
"I humbly pray Almighty God, that Great Britain may not feel the evils
which may flow from so important a dismemberment of its empire, and that
America may be a stranger to the calamities which have before now proved
to the mother-country that monarchy is inseparable from the benefits of
constitutional liberty. Religion, language, interests, affections may