Beginning of Peace Negotiations
The ejaculation attributed to Lord North, "O God! it's all over!" was no over-statement. The factions of the Whig party came together, and the Commons by a majority of nineteen resolved to cease offensive warfare in America and to direct their energies against France, Spain, and Holland. It was high time. Early in 1782 England lost the island of Minorca and several of the West Indies. From the English point of view the next move was to induce America to forswear her French ally and accept a separate peace. Attempts in this direction had indeed already been made. Lord North had made use of David Hartley, an intimate friend of Franklin; and one Digges, who was a great deal of a rascal, but who claimed to represent Lord North, had interviewed Franklin in Paris and Adams in Holland. Neither of these attempts, nor a like one to seduce France from the support of America, availed to disturb the close relations existing between Franklin and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vergenncs. Had he wished to do so Franklin would not have dared to go back on the instructions to the American Commissioners for Peace, instructions which forbade negotiation without the knowledge of the French Ministers. He was glad to live up to them and kept Vergennes informed of every move. The only effect of such efforts had been to rouse the resentment of Franklin, who was, in consequence, in no mood at all to listen to further negotiations of the kind. This the student should bear in mind.
On March 20, 1782, Lord North resigned, and the Rockingham Cabinet was formed from the two wings of the Whig party. The union was a marriage of convenience and was destined to prove a mesalliance. Charles Fox, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was in favor of immediate and unconditional recognition of American
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