interdiction of fishing to the Americans, on the British 

 American shores, &quot; an indication of animosity, tran 

 scending even the ordinary course of hostility in war.&quot; 

 Lord Bathurst, denied that any such disposition existed 

 on the part of the British government. That instruc 

 tions had been issued to the officers on the Ameri 

 can station, not even to interrupt the American fish 

 ermen, who might have proceeded to the coasts, 

 within the British jurisdiction for that year, but to 

 allow them to complete their fares, but to give them 

 notice that the privilege could not be extended beyond 

 the year, and that they must not return the next year. 

 Mr. Adams, supposed Lord Bathurst more anxious to 

 prevent the Americans from curing their fish on the 

 British territory, than from taking them in the British 

 waters, and accounts for his anxiety on the supposition that 

 the ministry knew &quot; that the immediate curing and dry 

 ing of the fish, as soon as they were taken, was essential to 

 the value, if not to the very prosecution of the fishery.&quot; 

 Lord Bathurst, however, alleged the ground of his 

 anxiety, to be the frequent disturbances between the 

 fishermen of the two nations. 



A few days after this conversation, between Lord 

 Bathurst and Mr. Adams, the latter sent his contem 

 plated letter to the former. He however brings for 

 ward no new arguments. He again takes his old ground, 

 urges the indefeasible right of the Americans to this 

 privilege, because they had always enjoyed it, because 

 the character of the Treaty of 1783, gave it such a 

 quality of perpetuity, that it could not be dissolved or 

 abrogated by war; and that the right to fish rested 

 on the same basis as the national independence ; and 

 therefore the omission of a Treaty stipulation, to con 

 tinue that right, could not affect the question, notwith 

 standing the notice ; and that Great Britain, by her nom 

 inal grant in the treaty of 1783, only acknowledged a 

 pre-existing right, &c. 



He then, on the part of the fishermen, appeals to the 

 humanity, cupidity and interest of Great Britain, by 

 representing that the labours of the fishermen &quot; had the 

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