Folio 252: Stormont to Weymouth. He spoke to Maurepas about the reports given to...

Folio 252: Stormont to Weymouth. He spoke to Maurepas about the reports given to Vergennes [f.248]. Maurepas gave the same answer. `Nous ne commencerons pas la guerre'. Stormont had denied the suggestion that he was treating with the Americans in Paris, offering independence on condition that they joined in an attack on France and he had said that he had never seen Franklin and did not wish to. He had seen his bust at the exhibition `et je m'entiendra là'. When Maurepas persisted in speaking of negotiations by a secret channel and a joint attack on France as being the only way to make the granting of independence palatable to the British nation, Stormont had rebutted all these `artful and insidious tales' and said that Britain had no intention of granting independence and that a treaty with the rebels made by France must be regarded as a declaration of war. He thought he had made some impression on Maurepas but that he may be wavering. Franklin is `too artful' not to exploit the situation and play a false and double game in England and France. `His natural duplicity' qualifies him for this.

Date and place: 1777 Dec 24 Paris.