234: THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



of the entrance of bays or indents of the coast,&quot; and 

 that, consequently, American fishermen had no right 

 to enter bays, there to take fish, although the fishing 

 might be at a greater distance than three miles from 

 the shore of the bay. * 



This opinion, be it observed, makes no distinction 

 between close bays and open ones, large indents of 

 the coast and small ones, and, if carried into effect by 

 the British Government, would exclude citizens of the 

 United States from a large part of the productive fish 

 ing-grounds on the coast of British America. 



Now, strange to say, this opinion of the Law Officers 

 of the Crown is based on a mere blunder of theirs, 

 or, to say the least, on a fiction, or a bald interpolation. 



After stating their conclusion, they assign, as the 

 sole reason of it : 



&quot;As [that is, because] we are of opinion that the term head 

 land is used in the treaty to express the part of the land 

 we have before mentioned, including the interior of the bays 

 and the indents of the coasts.&quot; 



It is not true that &quot;the term headland is used in 

 the treaty to express the part of the land we have 

 before mentioned.&quot; 



Neither the term &quot; headland &quot; nor any word of simi 

 lar signification is to be found -in the treaty. The 

 Law Officers of the Crown undertook to construe the 

 treaty without reading it, and by this presumptuous 

 carelessness caused the British Government to initi 

 ate a series of measures of a semi-hostile character, 

 which came very near producing another war be 

 tween Great Britain and the United States. 



