By the treaty of alliance it was stipulated that in case of war occurring between France and England, the two parties should aid each other with counsel and with arms, and that neither should conclude truce nor peace with Great Britain without consent of the other. This treaty being considered equivalent to a declaration of war between France and Great Britain, the English ambassador was recalled from Paris, and active preparations for war were made by both nations. On May 8th, Sir William Howe having at his own request resigned the command of the American army, Sir Henry Clinton arrived at Philadelphia to take his place, and early in June the three commissioners appointed under Lord North’s Conciliatory Bill—the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden, brother of the late governor of Maryland, afterwards Lord Auckland, and Governor Johnson—arrived at the same city a few days before the British troops evacuated. The day after their arrival, a passport being refused by Washington to Dr. Ferguson, the secretary of the commission, a letter was despatched by them, together with the late acts of parliament and other papers, directed to congress. A suspension of hostilities was proposed, and as the basis of a final adjustment of the contest, an extension of the privileges of trade hitherto allowed to the colonies was promised; no military force was to be kept up in any colony without the consent of its assembly; the continental bills of credit were to be taken up and ultimately discharged; the colonies were to be represented in parliament, and the British government in the colonial assemblies;—almost everything was to be conceded excepting the acknowledgment of independence. These concessions came too late. Two years before they would have been accepted with gratitude. They were now rejected; it could not have been otherwise. Congress gave a very summary reply in the words of the resolution already stated, and firmly refused to treat in any way with Great Britain, unless she withdrew her troops or acknowledged the independence of the States. The commissioners returned a long and argumentative reply, to which congress made no answer.