s at Paris a strong feeling of distrust and suspicion
against their new allies. That feeling we find most plainly expressed by
Mr. Adams in relating his own conversations with Mr. Oswald. 'You are
afraid,' said Mr. Oswald to-day, 'of being made the tools of the Powers
of Europe?' 'Indeed I am,' said I. 'What Powers?' said he. 'All of
them,' said I.

"But in the minds of the American Commissioners, the distrust against
France was more vehement than against any other State. The best American
writers of the present day acknowledge that all surmises thence arising
were, in truth, ill-founded; that the conduct of France towards the
United States had been marked throughout not only by good faith and
honour, but by generosity." (Lord Mahon's History of England, etc., Vol.
VII., Chap. lxvi., pp. 293, 294.)]

[Footnote 60: In the preamble of the treaty, it was provided that "The
treaty was not to be concluded until terms of peace shall be agreed upon
between Great Britain and France." By this limitation (which was a mere
form, as the provisional articles were to be meanwhile binding and
effective), the Americans were in hopes of avoiding, at least of
softening, their French allies. "The first Article acknowledged in the
fullest terms the independence of the United States. The second fixed
their boundaries, and certainly to their advantage. The third gave their
people the right to take fish on all the banks of Newfoundland, but not
to dry or cure them on any of the King's settled dominions in America.
By the fourth, fifth, and sixth Articles, it was engaged that Congress
should earnestly recommend to the several Legislatures to provide for
the restitution of all estates belonging to real British subjects who
had not borne arms against them. All other persons were to be at liberty
to go to any of the provinces and remain there for twelve months to wind
up their affairs, the Congress also recommending the restitution of
their confiscated property, on their repayment of the sums for which
they had been sold. No impediment was to be put in the way of recovering
_bona fide_ debts; no further prosecutions were to be commenced, no
further confiscations made. It was likewise stipulated in the seventh
and eighth Articles, that the English should at once withdraw their
fleets and armies from every port or place which they still possessed
within the limits of the United States; and that the navigation of the
Mississippi, from its source to