A delay of one day might, and probably would, have changed the Ministry in England, in which case all would have been lost. If, after we had agreed with Mr Oswald, we had gone to Versailles to show the result to the Count de Vergennes, you would have been this moment at war, and God knows how or when you would have got out. What would have been the course? The Count de Vergennes would have sprinkled us with compliments, the holy water of a Court. He would have told us; "you have done, gentlemen, very well for your country. You have gained a great deal. I congratulate you upon it, but you must not sign till we are ready; we must sign altogether here in this room." What would have been our situation? We must have signed against this advice, as Mr Laurens says he would have done, and as I believe Mr Jay and I should have done, which would have been the most marked affront, that could have been offered, or we must have waited for France and Spain, which would have changed the Ministry in England, and lost the whole peace, as certainly as there is a world in being. When a few frail vessels are navigating among innumerable mountains of ice, driven by various winds, and drawn by various currents, and a narrow crevice appears to one, by which all may escape, if that one improves the moment and sets the example, it will not do to stand upon ceremonies, and ask, which shall go first, or that all may go together. I hope you will excuse this little excursion, and believe me to be, with great respect and esteem, your most obedient and most humble servant, JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Paris, July 7th, 1783. Sir, We cannot as yet obtain from Mr Hartley, or his principals, an explicit consent to any one proposition whatever. Yet England and France, and England and Spain are probably agreed, and Holland, I suppose, must comply. Our last resource must be to say, we are ready to sign the Provisional Treaty, _totidem verbis_, as the Definitive Treaty. I think it is plain, that the British Ministry do not intend to sign any treaty till Parliament rises. There are such dissensions in the Cabinet, that they apprehend a treaty laid before Parliament, if it did not obtain advantages, of which they have no hope, would furnish materials to overthrow them. A new administration is talked of, under Lord Temple. The West India commerce is now the object, that interests us the most nearly. At dinner with the Duc de la Vauguyon, on Saturday last, he told me, that he believed the commerce between the French West India Islands and the United States, would be confined to ships built in France, and navigated by French seamen.