To Benjamin Franklin from Alleyne Fitzherbert, 26 January 1783
From Alleyne Fitzherbert8
AL: Library of Congress
Hotel du Parc Royal rue des Marais le 26 Janvier 1783
M. Fitz-Herbert est venu pour avoir l’honneur de faire part qu’il a eu Mardi 21 de ce mois ses premiéres audiences du Roi, de la Reine, et de la famille Royale en qualité de Ministre Plenipotentiaire de Sa Majesté Britannique.
8. Fitzherbert had been appointed minister plenipotentiary the preceding summer (XXXVII, 685n), but was received by the royal family only when peace was restored. We assume that this announcement, written in French, was one of several that Fitzherbert prepared in advance to leave at the residences of the ministers who were not at home when he called.
On Jan. 25 Fitzherbert reported to Grantham that the American commissioners had accepted his credentials to treat with France as “a full-power to treat with them likewise,” in Oswald’s absence: Giunta, Emerging Nation, I, 759.