urn for it.

Shelburne with, it is said,[169] the consent of the cabinet, sent one
Oswald to Paris to open informal negotiations with Franklin. Oswald, who
was wholly unfit for diplomatic work, favourably received Franklin's
monstrous proposition that England should cede Canada to the Americans,
though they had been driven out of the country, and the Canadians
themselves desired to remain attached to England. He gave Shelburne a
paper containing this proposition. Shelburne, who would certainly not
have assented to it, treated the paper as confidential and did not show
it to his colleagues. The cabinet agreed that Oswald should return to
treat with Franklin, and that Thomas Grenville, the second son of George
Grenville, who was nominated by Fox, should negotiate with Vergennes.
Rodney's victory gave the ministers ground for believing that, if they
could separate America from France, they would be in a good position to
resist French demands; and they therefore instructed Grenville to
propose to Vergennes that England should acknowledge American
independence directly, and not through France. This Fox held gave him
the whole conduct of the negotiations. As, however, Franklin was anxious
not to lose so pliant a negotiator as Oswald, the cabinet agreed that
Oswald should continue to confer with him. On June 4, Grenville
complained to Fox that the separate negotiation between Oswald and
Franklin rendered it impossible for him to make any progress, and
further told him that he had learned from Oswald that Shelburne had seen
the paper containing Franklin's proposition with respect to Canada. Fox
was indignant, for he considered that Shelburne was carrying on a
clandestine negotiation, and that the concealment of the Canada paper
was a proof of his duplicity. On the 30th he proposed in the cabinet
that the independence of America should be acknowledged without a
treaty, which would have given him the entire charge of the
negotiations. He was outvoted and declared that he would resign office.
In this matter Shelburne does not appear to have been guilty of
intrigue. The two secretaries mistrusted and were jealous of one
another, and Fox was too ready to believe that Shelburne was secretly
working in league with the king to counteract his negotiations, which
was not the case. In concealing the Canada paper from his colleagues,
Shelburne behaved with characteristic lack of openness, but as
Franklin's proposition was informal and requ