26 READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 



heretofore enjoyed or claimed&quot; as to fishing 

 within three miles of coasts, bays, creeks, or 

 harbors outside of the foregoing limits. This 

 wording was held to imply that the inshore 

 privileges recognized in the treaty were not 

 newly granted or ever granted by Great Britain, 

 but were part of a natural heritage possessed 

 by the United States, of which another and 

 larger part was voluntarily renounced. 



It is interesting to notice that, despite the 

 meticulous care which the Americans devoted 

 to the phrasing of the article, with a view to its 

 more or less metaphysical implications, there re 

 mained in it the germ of a long and vexatious 

 dispute on a most practical point of interpre 

 tation. Within twenty years of the signing of 

 the treaty the British Government took the 

 position that the &quot;bays * from which the Amer 

 icans were excluded embraced great expanses 

 of deep sea where fishermen could ply their 

 vocation on the largest scale without coming 

 within three miles of the shore. If any one 

 concerned in the negotiation of the treaty in 

 1818 suspected the possibility of such a view, 

 he left no record of his insight. 



In addition to the settlement as to the fish 

 eries, this treaty dealt with the delimitation of 



