The Fishery Question. 31 



manded, in the course of conversation, that 

 the Habihty of all American debtors to their 

 Enorlish creditors should be acknowledeed 

 by the treaty. Adams replied, off hand, that 

 he had no objections to such an article. On 

 this point Franklin had stood out. The 

 losses inflicted by loyalists more than bal- 

 anced the account, in his opinion. He subse- 

 quently yielded, contenting himself with a 

 letter to Townsend in which he rehearsed the 

 practical difficulties in the way of collection. 

 Adams' convictions, as well as his special 

 knowledge, stiffened the claim to the Fisher- 

 ies. After a long discussion, the liberty of 

 the Americans to cure and dry was trans- 

 ferred from the coast of Newfoundland to 

 the uninhabited coasts of Nova Scotia, the 

 Magdalen Islands and Labrador, as long as 

 they remained unsettled. In the event of 

 settlement, the rights of inhabitants, proprie- 

 tors or possessors of the ground, were to be 

 recognized. Franklin remodelled the article 

 to include the right to take fish not only on 

 the Grand Bank and on all the other banks of 

 Newfoundland, but also in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and all other places in the sea 

 ** where the inhabitants of both countries 



