un that
system of pecuniary aid which it continued to render through the whole
course of the war. Vergennes granted the Commissioners an early
interview, listened respectfully to their statements, asked them for a
memorial to lay before the King, assured them of the personal protection
of the French Court, promised them every commercial facility not
incompatible with treaty obligations with Great Britain, and advised
them to seek an interview with the Spanish Ambassador. The memorial was
promptly drawn up and presented. A copy of it was given to the Spanish
Ambassador to lay before the Court of Madrid. Negotiations were fairly
opened.

But Franklin soon became convinced that the French Government had marked
out for itself a line of policy, from which, as it was founded upon a
just appreciation of its own interests, it would not swerve,--that it
wished the Americans success, was prepared to give them secret aid in
arms and money and by a partial opening of its ports,--but that it was
compelled by the obligations of the Family Compact to time its own
movements in a certain measure by those of Spain, and was not prepared
to involve itself in a war with England by an open acknowledgment of the
independence of the Colonies, until they had given fuller proof of the
earnestness of their intentions and of their ability to bear their part
in the contest. Nor was he long in perceiving that the French Government
was giving the Colonies money which it sorely needed for paying its own
debts and defraying its own expenses,--and thus, that, however
well-disposed it might be, there were certain limits beyond which it was
not in its power to go. It was evident, therefore, to his just and
sagacious mind, that to accept the actual policy of France as the gauge
of a more open avowal under more favorable circumstances, and to
recognize the limits which her financial embarrassments set to her
pecuniary grants, was the only course that he could pursue without
incurring the danger of defeating his own negotiations by excess of
zeal. Meanwhile there was enough to do in strengthening the ground
already gained, in counteracting the insidious efforts of English
emissaries, in correcting erroneous impressions, in awakening just
expectations, in keeping up that public interest which had so large a
part in the formation of public opinion, and in so regulating the action
of that opinion as to make it bear with a firm and consistent and not
unwelcome