States, and withdrawal of all British forces; second, Canada to remain British and a definitive
boundary to be drawn; third, agreement on the boundaries of all Thirteen States; and, finally,
freedom for fishing off Newfoundland-the first international fisheries agreement.
What is so fascinating about these talks, and the background to them, is the ambivalence of
British attitudes to America and vice versa. A short time before, Britain's back had been against
the wall, with not only France, Spain, and the Netherlands actively making war against it, but
with the League of Armed Neutrality-Russia, Denmark, and Sweden-also hostile and poised to
attack. Franklin was planning with the French Ministry of Marine a series of attacks on the
English coasts, with John Paul Jones in charge of the naval forces and Lafayette of an invasion
army. British resources were stretched thin all over the world. The French had two divisions,
totaling 40,000 men, ready for the invasion, and sixty-four Franco-Spanish ships, mounting
4,774 guns, to escort them. Against this, Sir Charles Hardy's Channel Fleet had only thirty-eight
ships with 2,968 guns. Lord Barrington, the British War Secretary, said there was no one in
England-all the best generals were overseas-fit to command an anti-invasion army. It was wind
and sickness, hitting the Franco-Spanish fleet hard, which probably averted a Channel crossing.
Then, in no time at all, there were persistent rumors of a dramatic renversement d'alliances, in
which Britain would concede the United States sovereignty and both powers would attack France
and Spain, driving them out of North America completely. America had already found them
treacherous and unreliable allies, and after all Britain was its main trading partner, and Britain's
control of the oceans a precondition of American prosperity. Once America was recognized as
independent by the British, the two nations had far more to agree about than to dispute, and in
these rumors-nothing came of them of course-we can trace the distant foreshadowing of the
Monroe Doctrine forty years later. At the peace talks, the French were surprised at the readiness
of the British to make concessions to America. Vergennes declared: The British buy peace rather than make it. Their concessions exceed all that I could have thought possible.' That was Franklin's doing: he persuaded the British to be generous to America and in return he abandoned France and signed a separate peace on November 30, 1782. During the celebrations at Passy an exchange between a French guest and one of the British delegates, Caleb Whitefoord, made the point. The flattering Frenchman stressed the growing greatness of America, predicting thatthe
thirteen United States would form the greatest empire in the world.' Whitefoord: Yes, Monsieur, and they will all speak English, every one ofem.' From the fires of the war, phoenix-like, sprang
that mysterious and long-lived creature, still with us, the Anglo-American Special Relationship.
The consequences of this second world war were profound and reverberated for years. It is worth
looking at them for a moment from a global perspective, because of their effects on subsequent
American history. All things considered, Britain emerged from the long conflict comparatively
unscathed. The people were not emotionally involved, there were no soul-scars. Many interests,
not just the Whigs, had been against it all along and the merchants in particular were anxious to
end it and get on with the Atlantic trade. If anything, the war boosted the British economy, which
entered the decade of the 1780s-the take-off point of the first Industrial Revolution-in roaring
form. The war ended mercantilism once and for all. The ideas of Adam Smith-who had been
strongly opposed to a coercive policy throughout-triumphed, and with the formation of the great
peacetime ministry by William Pitt the Younger at the end of 1783, Smith was now a welcome
visitor in 10 Downing Street and his free-trade ideas began to take over British policy. Britain
was now in the process of becoming the world's first great industrial power and the victory for