"That there shall be an unlimited suspension of arms with France on the condition, that neither of the belligerent powers can break it without advertising the other a year beforehand.
"That with a view of re-establishing reciprocal security and good faith between the two Crowns, by means of this suspension of hostilities, there shall be a general disarming in the space of one month on the side of Europe, in four months on that of America, and in eight months or a year for those of Africa and of Asia the most remote.
"That they shall determine in a month the place where the Plenipotentiaries of the two Courts shall assemble, to treat of a definitive accommodation of peace, and to regulate the restitutions or compensations relative to the reprisals, which have been made without adjudication of war, and to other grievances or pretensions of one or the other Crown. For this purpose the King will continue his mediation, offering in the first place the city of Madrid to hold a Congress.
"That the King of Great Britain shall grant a like cessation of hostilities to the American Colonies, by the intercession and mediation of his Catholic Majesty, a year beforehand, to the end, that he may apprize the said American Provinces, that they are equally ordered to make a reciprocal disarming at the epochas, and for the spaces of time, which have been specified with regard to France.
"That the bounds be fixed beyond which neither of the two parties shall pass from the positions and territories, in which it shall be at the time of the ratification of this arrangement.
"That they may send to Madrid one or more Commissioners on the part of the Colonies, and that his Britannic Majesty may also send others on his part under the mediation of the King, if necessary, in order to adjust all those points and others, which respect this suspension of arms, and the effects which it ought to produce, so long as it shall subsist, and that during this interval the Colonies shall be treated as independent in fact. That in case all the belligerent powers, or any others among them, or even the Colonies themselves, demand that the treaties or accommodations, which are concluded, be guarantied by those powers and by Spain, they shall in effect be so guarantied. And the Catholic King now offers his guarantee for the preliminaries."
No. 3.
Translation.
Extract from the Exposition of the Motives of the Court of Spain relative to England.
Among the propositions of the ultimatum of the King of Spain, there is one for which the British Cabinet has affected to have the greatest repugnance, and that is the proposition which imparts, that the Colonies shall be treated as independent in fact, during the interval of the truce. It is extraordinary, since it is even ridiculous, that the Court of London after having treated the Colonies during the war as independent, not only in fact, but also of right, should have any repugnance to treat them as independent only in fact, during the truce, or suspension of arms. The Convention of Saratoga, General Burgoyne considered as a lawful prisoner, the exchange and liberation of other Colonial prisoners, the nomination of Commissioners to meet the Americans at their own homes, the act of having asked peace of them, and to treat with them, or with Congress, and a hundred other facts of this nature, authorised by the Court of London, have been genuine signs of an acknowledgment of the independence of the Colonies.