I reported to them on the propriety of releasing their prisoners. The report is to be considered today, and I doubt not that it will be agreed to. The British Parliament appear to be extremely dissatisfied at the terms of peace; a majority, headed by Lord North, has been obtained against the Administration, so that I think Lord Shelburne has little prospect of continuing in the Administration; but this is of no consequence to us, unless we are bound to like an Administration that has served us against their will. As doubts may arise with respect to the restitution of prizes taken after the epoch fixed by the Proclamation, it may not be improper for me to mention to you, that we conceive, that hostilities ceased in those parts of the Atlantic Ocean, which lay in the same _latitude_ with the Canaries, on the 3d of March.
I received your letter of the 6th instant, informing me of the arrival of a Packet, by which you have official intelligence, that the Preliminary Articles of Peace with France and Spain were signed at Paris on the 20th of January last; that the ratifications have been since exchanged, and that his Britannic Majesty has ordered a cessation of arms to be proclaimed, as well by sea as by land; and that you propose, agreeably to his orders, to issue a similar Proclamation, and to set at liberty your prisoners of war.
This interesting intelligence was communicated to the United States in Congress, who, though they had yet received no official accounts, would immediately have made it the basis of pacific measures, without entertaining doubts of its authenticity, or yielding to suspicions which would tend to prolong the calamities of war; but while these measures were under consideration, they received from their Ministers official advices of the agreement between them and the Court of Great Britain relative to a cessation of hostilities, on which they have founded the enclosed Proclamation.[29] They have likewise under consideration measures for the discharge of their prisoners; these measures will be carried into effect as soon as possible after they are determined on.
It cannot be doubted, Sir, as you justly observe, that Congress will embrace the earliest opportunity to perform the stipulations contained in the fifth, as well as every other of the Provisional Articles, immediately after the same shall have been ratified. In the meanwhile, it must be obvious to your Excellency that a recommendation to restore to the loyalists the estates they have forfeited, will come with less weight before Legislatures composed of men, whose property is still withheld from them by the continuance of his Britannic Majesty's fleets and armies in this country, than it will do when peace and the full enjoyment of their rights shall have worn down those asperities, which have grown out of eight years' war. This reflection will, I doubt not, induce you to give every facility in your power to the execution of the seventh Article of the Provisional Treaty, and to fix as early a day for the evacuation of New York, and its dependencies, as may consist with your orders.