[DUPLICATE.] 83 



the origin and immortality of the latter, but we offered to concede 

 (145) much more than we could hope to gain (l *G) by the arrangement. 



From the year 1783, to the commencement of the present war, 

 the actual advantages derived from the fishing privilege hy the 

 people of the United States, were, according to the hest informa 

 tion that U* 7 ) we could obtain on the subject, very inconsiderable 

 and annually experiencing a voluntary diminution. 



It was discovered that the obscurity and humidity of the atmos 

 phere, owing to almost incessant fogs in the high northern latitudes, 

 where this privilege was chiefly located, prevented the effectual 

 curing of tish in those regions, and, consequently, lessened very 

 much the value of the (148) privilege of taking them there. By far 

 the greatest part of the fish taken by our fishermen before the 

 present war, was (l 49) taken in the open sea, or (15o)on our own 

 roasts, and curqd on (151) our shores. This branch of the fisheries 

 has been found to be inexhaustible, and has been pursued with so 

 much more certainty and despatch than the privileged portion 

 (152) within British jurisdiction, that it has not only been generally 

 preferred by our fishermen, but would, probably, on longer expe 

 rience, have been almost universally used by them. It was to be 

 believed, therefore, that a discontinuance of the privilege of taking, 

 and curing fish within the British jurisdiction, would not, at all, 

 diminish the aggregate quantity taken by the people of the United 

 States, or (153) vary materially the details ot the business. That puit 

 of the fisheries which would (154) still belong to us as a nation, being 

 exhaustless, would afford an ample field for all the capital and in 

 dustry hitherto employed in the general business of fishing, or mer 

 chandise offish ; and on that field might the few fishermen who had, 

 hitherto, used the liberty of taking and curing fish within the ju 

 risdiction of Great Britain, exert their skill and labour without any 

 serious inconvenience. O 55 ) That liberty, liable, (156) to a very 

 considerable degree, by the terms in which it was granted, to be 

 curtailed by the government and subjects of a foreign state, already 

 growing into voluntary disuse by eur own citizens, on account of 

 the difficulties inseparable from it, and absolutely incapable of ex 

 tension, was totally unnecessary to us for subsistence or occupa 

 tion, and afforded, (157) in no honest way, either commercial facility. 

 or political advantage. This privilege, too, while it was thus oif 

 little (158) and precarious utility to us, cost Great Britain literally 

 (159) miking. 



The free navigation of the Mississippi, with the necessary access 

 to it, is a grant of a very different character. If it was not, here 

 tofore, used by Great Britain, it was, perhaps, because she did not 

 consider herself entitled to it; or because the circumstances of the 

 moment suspended its practical utility. The treaty of 1783 stipu 

 lated, for her, the navigation of this river, under the presumption 

 that her territories extended to it, and of course, could not intend 

 fo give her access to it through our territories. The l-ritih pos- 

 ?psions to the westward of Lake Erie being almost entirely ianst- 



