ice of Lord Amherst to the King, instructions had been addressed to
Sir Henry, on the 23rd of March, to retire from the hard-won city of
Philadelphia, and concentrate his forces at New York. This order reached
him at Philadelphia, in the month of May, only a few days after he had
assumed the chief command; only a few days before, there came on shore
the British Commissioners of Peace. These Commissioners might well
complain with some warmth, in a secret letter to Lord George Germaine,
that an order so important, so directly bearing on the success of their
mission, should have been studiously concealed from them until they
landed in America, and beheld it in progress of execution. Thus to a
private friend wrote Lord Carlisle (one of the Commissioners): 'We
arrived at this place, after a voyage of six weeks, on Saturday last,
and found everything here in great confusion--- the army upon the point
of leaving the town, and about three thousand of the miserable
inhabitants embarked on board of our ships, to convey them from a place
where _they think they would receive no mercy from those who will take
possession after us_.'"

"Thus from the first," says Lord Mahon, "the Commissioners had against
them the news of a retreat from Philadelphia, and the news of the treaty
of Paris; further, they had against them, as the Opposition in England
had long foreseen and foretold, the fact of their connection with Lord
North. Even at the outset, before their affairs could be known (June 14,
1778), one of the leaders in America, General Joseph Reed, answered a
private note from one of them as follows: 'I shall only say that after
the unparalleled injuries and insults this country has received from the
men who now direct the affairs of Great Britain, a negotiation under
their auspices has much to Struggle with.'" "How different," remarks
Lord Mahon, "might have been his feelings, had they brought their
Commission from Lord Chatham." (History of England, Vol. VI., Chap.
lviii., pp. 372-374.)

Lord Mahon adds: "Not any, even the smallest opening, was afforded to
these messengers of peace. They desired to despatch to the seat of
Congress their Secretary, Dr. Adam Ferguson, the well-known Professor of
Edinburgh, and they applied to Washington for a passport, but Washington
refused it until the pleasure of Congress should be known. The Congress,
on their part, had put forth a resolution declining even to hold any
conference with the Commission