Office of Foreign Affairs, December 30th, 1782. The substance of a verbal communication made to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs by the Minister of France, on the 30th and 31st of December, 1782, offered to the consideration of Congress on the 1st of January, 1783, by the said Secretary. The Minister of France came this day agreeably to appointment, to the Office of Foreign Affairs, and read to Mr Livingston a letter from the Count de Vergennes to him, dated the 12th of August last, which contained in substance; that the negotiations begun by Mr Grenville and Mr Oswald were interrupted by the resignation of Mr Fox. That previous to that, the King of England appeared disposed to acknowledge the independency of America in express terms, without making it a condition of the peace; that Mr Grenville encouraged them to hope, that this object would be rendered complete by an act of Parliament; that they looked in vain for this act till they were apprised of the resignation of Mr Fox; that the difference which arose between him and Lord Shelburne led them to suppose, that the design of the first was to recognise the independency of America and treat for a general peace upon fair and honorable terms; that Lord Shelburne's was, on the contrary, to endeavor to excite distrusts, and particularly to endeavor to mislead the Americans; that in pursuance of this system in the month of June last, at the very time that they opened their treaty in Europe, he proposed to offer the most advantageous terms to America upon condition that the Americans laid down their arms and left France to settle the dispute alone. This insidious conduct was pursued during Mr Grenville's negotiation. That Mr Fox's resignation suspended the negotiation, though the new Administration declared, that this event should occasion no change of measures; that the Court of France expected the effect of this declaration, when a commission was expedited to Mr Oswald to treat with the American Plenipotentiaries, and another to authorise Mr Fitzherbert to resume the negotiation begun by Mr Grenville; that he had presented his credentials the 4th instant; that Mr Oswald had yet received only a copy of his, owing to the Chancellor's absence; that Mr Fitzherbert had returned the answer of Great Britain to the counter proposition given by France; that this contains full evidence of the unsteadiness of Lord Shelburne's conduct, since, instead of making the independence of America a separate object, it proposes it as a condition, and as the price of peace, and adds, that every other circumstance should be placed upon the basis of 1763.