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Subjoined to this Diary are full minutes of Oswald's conversations with Franklin on the 31st of May and 3rd June, 1782; between which days he states that he had an interview with Mr. Grenville. We regret that the length of the minutes prevents us from printing them entire: we therefore subjoin extracts of those portions which bear principally upon the question discussed in our Article.

1782. Arrived at Paris, Friday, 31st May, nine in the ' morning. Called on Mr. Grenville; delivered his packets. Then went out to Passy, and delivered to Dr. Franklin the sundry letters for him, and had a good deal of conversation. with him about the affairs of the peace. He thought there should be separate commissions to treat, one for France, one for the Colonies. Was not so positive as to Spain and • Holland, although mentioned on several occasions. That

though the treaties might go on separately, yet to be united in ⚫ the final conclusion; meaning that there should be such corre❝spondence between them that there should be no separate conclusion. That by treating separately, different interests and • subjects not strictly relative to each other, would not be mixed and involved in too much intricacy, and so might be separately discussed in the progress, and yet the final conclusion of the whole in one general settlement might be governed and made 'to be dependent upon those separate adjustments. Adding that the more we favoured them (meaning the Colonies) the 'more they would do for us in the conclusion of these separate ' treaties.'

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June 3rd. I wanted to take my leave, having sat a con'siderable time, but he wished me to stay a little longer. And ' he fell into the subject formerly mentioned of the treaty going 'on by separate commissions for each party, and said he could see no objection to there being one commission for France, one for the Colonies, and perhaps one for Spain and one for Holland. That by this means, the business with each being separately discussed, they might more quickly and clearly come to a conclusion than when so many different interests must be jointly treated under the same commission. That, with respect to the Colony business, if my private affairs would allow of my absence, and that I would divert myself in the mean time, I might take up that com'mission. I told him, that if it was to trench on the character of Mr. Grenville's station, it would be the last thing I should incline to. That I believed him very capable and prudent, and had no doubt of his acquiring himself a reputation. As to my stay here, it was on account of various circumstances

'not the most agreeable. And with respect to my private 'affairs, they were in such situation that I should not suffer 'much by my attendance. At least, I should make no account ' of these matters if I thought that upon so critical an occasion I would be of any service to my country, &c.

The doctor replied, that he thought the Commission for the 'Colonies would be better in my hands than in Mr. Grenville's. 'That I understood more of Colony business than he did, and ' he himself had a longer acquaintance with me than with Mr. 'Grenville, and could not say but he esteemed me; and there'fore not only thought the Colony Commission would be left in my hands, but he wished it might be so.

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I replied, that his wishing it was enough to determine, if I found it was a task I could go through with. That my 'coming here after the first time was entirely owing to the letters he wrote to Lord Shelburne, wherein he was pleased to express himself so favourably with respect to me, that I was ' ordered to return on the two succeeding occasions. That I 'was happy in the enjoyment of his good opinion. Was much 'obliged to him, &c.

From thence we turned to a more general course of con'versation, when I told him I could not but contratulate him in his present happy situation. Since I considered the settlement of a peace on fair and equitable terms to be ' entirely in his hands. Since, to speak the truth, I could not help thinking, that when they as Commissioners of the Colonies were satisfied they had it in their power to draw the line. of such reasonable termination as ought and must content the other Powers.'

Mr. Oswald's record of the latter part of the conversation on the 3rd of June agrees substantially with Franklin's account of it in his Journal, although the latter is more concise. (Works, ib. p. 316.) Both the conversations, as preserved by Oswald in his private notes, negative the idea that there was any disposition on his part to counteract Mr. Grenville, although they show that Franklin preferred negotiating with Mr. Oswald.

No. CCII. will be published in April.

THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

APRIL, 1854.

No. CCII.

ART. I.-1.

Patriarchal Order, or Plurality of Wives. By ORSON SPENCER, Chancellor of the University of Deseret. Liverpool: 1853.

From

2. The Seer. Edited by ORSON PRATT. vol. 1. January 1853 to December 1853. Washington: 1853. 3. Reports of the Scandinavian, Italian, and Prussian Missions of the Latter Day Saints. Liverpool: 1853.

4. Millennial Star [the Weekly Organ of Mormonism], vols. XIV. and XV., from January 1852 to December 1853. Liverpool: 1852 and 1853.

5. History of the Mormons. By Lieutenant GUNNISON. Philadelphia: 1852.

6. Survey of Utah. By Captain STANSBURY. Philadelphia: 1852.

7. The Mormons. Illustrated by Forty Engravings. London:

1852.

8. Letters on the Doctrines. By O. SPENCER. London:

1852.

To save time and space we shall refer to these works as follows: to (1.) as P. O.; (2.) as Seer; to (4.) as XIV. or XV.; to (5.) as G.; to (6.) as S.; to (7.) as M. Illust.; to (8.) as Spencer; to (9.) as Hymns; to (10.) as Kane; to (13.) as D. C.; and to (14.) as Mormon.

VOL. XCIX. NO. CCII.

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9. Hymns of Latter Day Saints. London: 1851. 10. The Mormons. By THOMAS KANE. Philadelphia: 1850. 11. A Bill to establish a Territorial Government for Utah. Washington: 1850.

12. Exposé of Mormonism. By JOHN BENNETT. Boston: 1842.

13. Doctrines and Covenants of Latter Day Saints. Nauvoo : 1846.

14. The Book of Mormon. Palmyra. 1830.

THE

· ..

HE readers of Southey's Doctor' must remember the quaint passage in which he affects to predict that his book will become the Scripture of a future Faith; that it will be dug up among the ruins of London, and considered as one of the 'sacred books of the sacred island of the West; and give birth to a new religion, called Dovery, or Danielism, which may have its chapels, churches, cathedrals, abbeys; its synods, 'consistories, convocations, and councils; its acolytes, sacristans, deacons, priests, prebendaries, canons, deans, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes. .. Its High-Dovers and 'Low-Dovers, its Danielites of a thousand unimagined and unimaginable denominations; its schisms, heresies, seditions, 'persecutions, and wars.' Many must have felt, when they read this grotesque extravaganza, that it almost overstepped the boundary which separates fun from nonsense. Yet its wild imagination has been more than realised by recent facts. While Southey was writing it at Keswick, a manuscript was lying neglected on the dusty shelves of a farmhouse in New England, which was fated to attain more than the honours which he playfully imagines as the future portion of his Daniel Dove.'

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The book destined to so singular an apotheosis, was the production of one Solomon Spalding, a Presbyterian preacher in America; of whose history we only know that, like so many others of his class and country, he had abandoned theology for trade, and had subsequently failed in business. Nor can we wonder, judging from the only extant specimen of his talents, that he should have been thus unfortunate both in the pulpit and at the counter. After his double failure the luckless man, who imagined (according to his widow's statement) that he had a literary taste,' thought to redeem his shattered fortunes by the composition of an historical romance. The subject which he chose was the history of the North American Indians; and the work which he produced was a chronicle of their wars and migrations. They were described as descendants of the pa

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