L29/568/69

Grantham, St. James's to Fitzherbert, Paris (No 31, copy) Offer to be made to Holland as the price for peace: 1. Renewal of the treaties existing at the time of the rupture. 2. Restitution of all places taken from them except Trincomale'. 3. Refusal to allow demand for indemnification claimed by them. If they do not accept the first they have no pretence to any privileges beyond the Law of Nations. Proposal made by Mr Fox was that if the Dutch would make a separate peace and agree to a suspension of hostilities Great Britain would enter into a negotiation with Holland upon the basis of the Treaty of 1674. If Mr Fox's offer was not complied with it was to be considered null. Dutch must be considered as a nation with whom we have no treaty at all. If for the sake of peace it should be necessary to come to some agreement on their trade, the utmost the King can consent to is that they should be put on the same footing with the Danes with the same explanatory article. Russian ships from Brest to St Mauritius and the attempts of Portugal to bring home the treasures of South America to Old Spain make a resistance to the Neutral Code highly necessary. Fitzherbert to confer with the Dutch Plenipotentiaries and offer them the proposals in conference and then give in writing the claims most likely to be agreed upon.

18 Dec 1782

From: 1674 To: 1782

item

Lucas,
Grantham, Thomas Robinson, 2nd Baron,
Fitzherbert, Alleyn,
Fox, Charles,
George III

Foreign Secretary, political correspondence, Plenipotentiary, Dutch, peace and battles celebrations/commemorations, treaties, trade and industry overseas, general, general royalty, Danes, Russians, naval ships, Portuguese, treasure, Plenipotentiary, Westminster Saint James, Paris, Holland, Trincomalee, Britain, Denmark, Russia, Breste, Mauritius, Portugal, South America, Spain