stration was formed, and announced in the Commons on the
28th, when the House adjourned over the Easter holidays, to give time
for the re-election of such members as had accepted office. The King
first sent for the Earl of Shelburne to form a new Administration,
naming some members of it; but the Earl of Shelburne declined, as unable
to form an Administration upon such conditions, and recommended the King
to send for the Marquis of Rockingham. The King refused to see
Rockingham face to face, but requested Shelburne to be the bearer of a
message to him; but Shelburne only consented on the condition of "full
power and full confidence." "Necessity," relates the King, "made me
yield to the advice of Lord Shelburne." Before accepting the offer of
First Lord of the Treasury, the Marquis of Rockingham, without
neglecting some minor matters, stipulated that there should be no veto
to the independence of America.[58] But it was nearly three months
before an Act passed the Commons authorizing peace with America, and
the acknowledgment of American Independence, and it was nearly a year
before the treaty for that purpose was agreed upon.

In the meantime, "Immediately before the fall of Lord North's Ministry,
in anticipation of that event, Dr. Franklin had written from Paris to
Lord Shelburne with general expressions of his pacific views. On
receiving that letter, Lord Shelburne, then Secretary of State, sent to
Paris, as agent, Mr. Richard Oswald, a London merchant well versed in
American affairs. Dr. Franklin readily conferred with Mr. Oswald, and
put into his hands a paper drawn up by himself, suggesting that, in
order to produce a thorough reconciliation, and to prevent any future
quarrel on the North American continent, England should not only
acknowledge the thirteen united States, but concede to them the Province
of Canada. Such a project was not likely to find favour in the eyes of
any British statesman. Mr. Oswald, however, undertook to return to
England and lay it before his chief, Dr. Franklin, at his departure,
expressing an earnest hope that all future communications to himself
might pass through the same hands.

"Under these circumstances, the Cabinet determined that Mr. Oswald
should go back to France and carry on the treaty with Franklin, though
by no means with such concessions as the American philosopher
desired."[59]

After the termination of hostilities between Great Britain and the
colonies, the American Com