10 



ultimate yesult of pouring into her cup a great portion 

 of their hardy and laborious industry, that these fish 

 eries afforded the means of subsistence to a numerous 

 class of people in the United States, whose habits of 

 life had been fashioned to no other occupation, and 

 whose fortunes had allotted them no other possession. 

 That to another, and, perhaps equally numerous class 

 of our citizens, they afforded the means of remittance 

 and payment for the productions of British industry 

 and ingenuity, imported from the manufactures of 

 the United Kingdom. He then urged the usefulness 

 of the labours of the fishermen, and the custom which 

 spared them in times of hostility. That although the 

 interest of the American and British fishermen might 

 at times conflict, yet the labour of the first, &quot; might 

 produce advantages to other British interests, equally 

 entitled to the regard, and fostering care of their 

 sovereign. 



On the 8th of November, Mr. Adams transmitted to 

 Mr. M nroe, Lord Bathurst s reply, dated October 30. 



The British minister, after protesting against the 

 claim, observes in behalf of the ministry, i( that they 

 feel every disposition, to afford the citizens of the 

 United States, all the liberties and privileges, connected 

 with the fisheries, which can consist with the just rights 

 and interests of Great Britain, and secure his majesty s 

 subjects from the undue molestations in their fishery, 

 which they have formerly experienced from the citizens 

 of the United States.&quot; He then forcibly controverts 

 the doctrine of the eternal duration of the right, in the 

 Americans, to enjoy the fishing privileges, within the 

 limits of the British sovereignty. &quot; If (says he) the 

 United States derived from the Treaty, of 1783, privi 

 leges from which other independent nations, not admit 

 ted by treaty, were excluded, the duration of the 

 privileges must depend upon the duration of the instru 

 ment, by which they were granted, and if the war 

 abrogated the treaty, it determined the privileges. It 

 has been urged indeed on the part of the United States, 

 that the treaty of 1783, was of a peculiar character, and 



