...establishment of royal authority. Meanwhile David Hartley, an opponent of the war, was sent to Paris to open negotiations with the American commissioners there. The war had already (1775-78) cost Great Britain more than 20,000 men, $100,000,000 of public expenditure, and 550 British vessels, chiefly in the merchant service, captured by American cruisers, worth about $12,000,000, besides a loss of trade wit...