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No. 14.-1815, June 17: Letter from Lord Bathurst to Governor
Keats.

DOWNING STREET, June 17, 1815.

SIR, As the Treaty of Peace lately concluded with the United States contains no provision with respect to the fisheries which the subjects of the United States enjoyed under the IIIrd Article of the Peace of 1783, His Majesty's Government consider it not unnecessary that you should be informed as to the extent to which those privileges are affected by the omission of any stipulation in the present Treaty, and of the line of conduct which it is, in consequence, advisable for you to adopt.

You cannot but be aware that the IIIrd Article of the Treaty of Peace of 1873 contained two distinct stipulations; the one recognizing the rights which the United States had to take fish upon the high seas, and the other granting to the United States the privilege of fishing within the British jurisdiction, and of using, under certain conditions, the shores and territories of His Majesty for purposes connected with the fishery; of these, the former, being considered permanent, cannot be altered or affected by any change of the relative situation of the two countries; but the other, being a privilege derived from the Treaty of 1783 alone, was, as to its duration, necessarily limited to the duration of the Treaty itself. On the declaration of war by the American Government, and the consequent abrogation of the then existing Treaties, the United States forfeited, with respect to the fisheries, those privileges which are purely conventional, and (as they have not been renewed by a stipulation in the present Treaty) the subjects of the United States can have no pretence to any right to fish within the British jurisdiction, or to use the British territory for purposes connected with fishery.

Such being the view taken of the question of the fisheries as far as relates to the United States, I am commanded by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent to instruct you to abstain most carefully from any interference with the fishery in which the subjects of the United States may be engaged, either on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or other places in the sea. At the same time you will prevent them, except under the circumstances hereinafter mentioned, from using the British territory for purposes connected with the fishery, and will exclude their fishingvessels from the bays, harbours, rivers, creeks, and inlets of all His Majesty's possessions. In case, however, it should have happened that the fishermen of the United States through ignorance of the circumstances which affect this question, should, previous to your arrival, have already commenced a fishery similar to that carried on by them previous to the late war, and should have occupied the British harbours and former establishments on the British territory which could not be suddenly abandoned without very considerable loss, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, willing to give every indulgence to the citizens of the United States which is compatible with His Majesty's rights, has commanded me to instruct you to abstain from molesting such fishermen or impeding the progress of their fishing during the present year, unless they should, by attempts to carry on a contraband trade, render themselves unworthy of pro

tection or indulgence. You will, however, not fail to communicate to them the tenor of the instructions which you have received and the view which His Majesty's Government take of the question of the fishery, and you will, above all, be careful to explain to them that they are not in any future season to expect a continuance of the same indulgence.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

BATHURST.

No. 15.-1815, July 21: Extract from Letter from Mr. Monroe (United States Secretary of State) to Mr. Adams (United States Minister at London).

Among the acts which we have to complain of with greatest earnestness is a late warning given by the commander of a British sloop of war to our fishermen near the coast of the British northern colonies to retire thence to the distance of twenty leagues. This, it is presumed, has been done under a construction of the late treaty of peace, which, by being silent on the subject, left that important interest to rest on the ground on which it was placed by the treaty of 1783. The right to the fisheries required no new stipulation to support it. It was sufficiently secured by the treaty of 1783. This important subject will claim your early attention. The measure thus promptly taken by the British Government, without any communication with this Government, notwithstanding the declaration of our Ministers at Ghent that our right would not be affected by the silence of the treaty, indicates a spirit which excites equal surprise and regret-one which by no means corresponds with the amicable relations established between the two countries by that treaty, or with the spirit with which it has been executed by the United States.

As you are well acquainted with the solidity of our right to the fisheries in question, as well as to those on the Grand Bank, and

elsewhere on the main ocean, to the limit of a marine league 64 only from the coast, (for the pretension to remove us twenty

leagues is too absurd to be discussed), I shall not dilate on it, especially at this time. It is sufficient to observe here, that the right of the United States to take fish on the coast of Newfoundland, and on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, and to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador-in short, that every right appertaining to the fisheries, which was secured by the treaty of 1783, stands now as unshaken and perfect as it then did, constituting a vital part of our political existence, and resting on the same solid foundation as our independence itself. In the act of dismemberment and partition, the rights of each party were distinctly defined. So much of territory and incidental rights were allotted to one, so much to the other; and as well might it be said, because our boundary had not been retraced in the late treaty, in every part, that certain portions of our territory had reverted to England, as that our right to fish, by whatever name secured, had experienced that fate. A liberty of unlimited duration,

thus secured, is as much a right as if it had been stipulated by any other term. Being to be enjoyed by one, adjoining the territory allotted by the partition to the other party, it seemed to be the appropriate term. I have made these remarks to show the solid ground on which this right is deemed to rest by this Government, relying on your thorough knowledge of the subject to illustrate and support it in the most suitable manner.

It can scarcely be presumed that the British Government, after the result of the late experiment, in the present state of Europe, and under its other engagements, can seriously contemplate a renewal of hostilities. But it often happens with nations, as well as with individuals, that a just estimate of its interests and duties is not an infallible criterion of its conduct. We ought to be prepared at every point to guard against such an event. You will be attentive to circumstances, and give us timely notice of any danger which may be menaced.

No. 16.-1815, September 7: Letter from Lord Bathurst to Mr. Baker. FOREIGN OFFICE, September 7, 1815. SIR: Your several despatches to No. 25 inclusive have been received and laid before the Prince Regent.

The necessity of immediately dispatching this messenger with my preceding numbers prevents my replying to the various topics which your more recent communications embrace. I shall therefore confine myself to conveying to you the sentiments of His Majesty's Government on the one requiring the most immediate explanation with the Government of the United States, namely, the fisheries, premising the instructions I have to give to you on the subject, with informing you that the line which you have taken in the discussion on that point, as explained in your No. 24, has met with the approbation of Ĥis Majesty's Government.

You will take an early opportunity of assuring Mr. Monroe that, as, on the one hand, the British Government cannot acknowledge the right of the United States to use the British territory for the purpose connected with the fishery, and that their fishing vessels will be excluded from the bays, harbours, rivers, creeks, and inlets of all His Majesty's possessions: so, on the other hand, the British Government does not pretend to interfere with the fishery in which the subjects of the United States may be engaged, either on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or other places in the sea, without the jurisdiction of the maritime league from the coasts under the dominion of Great Britain.

Upon these principles, therefore, the case against which the American Government has remonstrated, if well founded, was not authorized by His Majesty's Government.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

BATHURST.

No. 17.-1815, September 19: Extract from Letter from Mr. Adams to Mr. Monroe stating the Substance of a Conversation with Lord Bathurst.

Having formally renewed the claim for the restitution of the slaves carried away contrary to the engagements of the treaty of peace, or for payment of their value as the alternative, there were other objects which I deemed it necessary to present again to the consideration of this Government. In the first instance, it seemed advisable to open them by a verbal communication; and I requested of Lord Bathurst an interview, for which he appointed the 14th instant, when I 65 called at his office in Downing Street. I said that, having lately received despatches from you respecting several objects of some importance to the relations between the two countries, my first object in asking to see him had been to inquire whether he had received from Mr. Baker a communication of the correspondence between you and him relative to the surrender of Michilimackinac; to the proceedings of Colonel Nichols in the southern part of the United States; and to the warning given by the captain of the British armed vessel Jaseur to certain American fishing vessels to withdraw from the fishing grounds to the distance of sixty mile from the coast. He answered, that he had received all these papers from Mr. Baker about four days ago; that an answer with regard to the warning of the fishing vessels had immediately been sent; but, on the other subjects, there had not been time to examine the papers and prepare the

answers.

I asked him if he could, without inconvenience, state the substance of the answer that had been sent. He said, certainly: it had been that as, on the one hand, Great Britain could not permit the vessels of the United States to fish within the creeks and close upon the shores of the British territories, so, on the other hand, it was by no means her intention to interrupt them in fishing anywhere in the open sea, or without the territorial jurisdiction, a marine league from the shore; and, therefore, that the warning given at the place stated, in the case referred to, was altogether unauthorised. I replied that the particular act of the British commander in this instance being disavowed, I trusted that the British Government, before adopting any final determination upon the subject, would estimate, in candour, and in that spirit of amity which my own Government was anxiously desirous of maintaining in our relations with this country, the considerations which I was instructed to present in support of the right of the people of the United States to fish on the whole coast of North America, which they have uniformly enjoyed from the first settlement of the country; that it was my intention to address, in the course of a few days, a letter to him on the subject. He said that they would give due attention to the letter that I should send him, but that Great Britain had explicitly manifested her intention concerning it; that this subject, as I doubtless knew, had excited a great deal of feeling in this country, perhaps much more than its importance deserved; but their own fishermen considered it as an excessive hardship to be supplanted by American fishermen, even upon the very shores of the British dominions. I said that those

whose sensibilities had been thus excited had probably not considered the question of right in the point of view in which it had been regarded by us; that they were the sensibilities of a partial and individual interest, stimulated by the passions of competition, and considering the right of the Americans as if it had been a privilege granted to them by the British Government. If this interest was to have weight in determining the policy of the Cabinet, there was another interest liable to be affected in the opposite manner, which would be entitled equally to consideration-the manufacturing interest. The question of right had not been discussed at the negotiation of Ghent. The British plenipotentiaries had given a notice that the British Government did not intend hereafter to grant to the people of the United States the right to fish, and to cure and dry fish within the exclusive British jurisdiction in America, without an equivalent, as it had been granted by the treaty of peace in 1783. The American plenipotentiaries had given notice, in return, that the American Government considered all the rights and liberties in and to the fisheries on the whole coast of North America as sufficiently secured by the possession of them, which had always been enjoyed previous to the revolution, and by the recognition of them in the treaty of peace in 1783; that they did not think any new stipulation necessary for a further confirmation of the right, no part of which did they consider as having been forfeited by the war. It was obvious that the treaty of peace of 1783 was not one of those ordinary treaties which, by the usages of nations, were held to be annulled by a subsequent war between the same parties; it was not simply a treaty of peace; it was a treaty of partition between two parts of one nation, agreeing thenceforth to be separated into two distinct sovereignties. The conditions upon which this was done constituted, essentially, the independence of the United States; and the preservation of all the fishing rights, which they had constantly enjoyed over the whole coast of North America, was among the most important of them. This was no concession, no grant, on the part of Great Britain, which could be annulled by a war. There had been, in the same treaty of 1783, a right recognised in British subjects to navigate the Mississippi.

This right the British plenipotentiaries at Ghent had considered as still a just claim on the part of Great Britain, notwithstanding the war that had intervened. The American plenipotentiaries, to remove all future discussion upon both points, had offered to agree to an article expressly confirming both the rights. In declining this, an offer had been made on the part of Great Britain of an article stipulating to negotiate in future for the renewal of both the rights, for equivalents, which was declined by the American plenipotentiaries. on the express ground that its effect would have been an implied admission that the rights had been annulled. There was, therefore, no article concerning them in the treaty, and the question as to the right was not discussed. I now stated the ground upon which the Government of the United States considered the right as subsisting and unimpaired. The treaty of 1783 was, in its essential nature, not liable to be annulled by a subsequent war. It acknowledged the United States as a sovereign and independent Power. It would be an absurdity, inconsistent with the acknowledgment itself, to suppose it liable to be forfeited by a war. The whole treaty of

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