1. On 29 March, Charles James Fox informed the Russian ambassador at London that Britain
was willing to agree “to an immediate cessation of hostilities” with the Netherlands
and negotiate a peace treaty based “on free navigation according to the treaty of
1674.” This effort to separate the Dutch from the French represented a reversal of
the British policy toward the League of Armed Neutrality. The Russian ambassador immediately
wrote to Gallitzin and Markov, his colleagues at The Hague, and on 3 April
{ 390 } the two men submitted a memorial to the States General that contained the new British
offer. Fox’s proposal failed because the French opposed a separate Anglo-Dutch peace
and because the offer was made on the day the States of Holland voted to recognize
the United States. By the time Fox renewed the offer in May, the States General had
made the recognition official (
De Madariaga, Armed Neutrality of 1780, p. 387–388, 396–397;
Edler, Dutch Republic and Amer. Rev., p. 200; Dumas to Robert R. Livingston, 10 May,
Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev., 5:408–410).