PERTAINING TO NEGOTIATION OF TREATY OF 1818. 265 



few points there were upon which any agreement could be made ; and 

 it was evident, from everything excepting the personal courtesies of 

 the Prince and his cabinet, that the animosities of the condition from 

 which the two nations had lately emerged had very little subsided. I 

 had, however, before the receipt of your despatch, not a suspicion 

 that an immediate renewal of hostilities was contemplated ; and even 

 now, although I perceive no reason for flattering myself that any 

 satisfaction will be given us upon any one of our causes of complaint, 

 yet I do not apprehend that any act of open and avowed hostility will 

 be sanctioned by the British Government at the present moment. It 

 must, however, be added, that the most, perhaps the only unequivocal 

 pledge of pacific intentions is the reduction of the fleet, not only to a 

 peace establishment, but to an unusually small one. Your despatch, 

 and the several procedures to which it related, awakened an anxiety 

 that nothing should be omitted which could be of any possible utility 

 to our interests in this quarter. 



Having formally renewed the claim for the restitution of the slaves 

 carried away contrary to the engagements of the treaty of peace, or 

 for payment of their value as the alternative, there were other objects 

 which I deemed it necessary to present again to the consideration of 

 this Government. In the first instance, it seemed advisable to open 

 them by a verbal communication ; and I requested of Lord Bathurst 

 an interview, for which he appointed the 14th instant, when I called 

 at his oflice in Downing street. I said that, having lately received 

 • It-patches from you respecting several objects of some importance to 

 the relations between the two countries, my first object in asking to see 

 him had been to inquire whether he had received from Mr. Baker a 

 communication of the correspondence between you ami him relative 

 to t he surrender of ili<' Mzchuimackmac / to the proceedings of Colonel 

 Nichols in t lie southern part of the United States; and to the warning 

 gives by the captain of t he British armed vessel Jas&wr to certain 

 AjnericaD fishing vessels to withdraw from the fishing grounds to the 

 distance of sixty miles from the coast. lie answered, that he had re- 

 ceived all these papers from Mr. Baker about four days ago: that an 

 answer with regard to the warning of the fishing vessels had immedi- 

 ately been sent ; but, on the other subjects, there had not been time to 

 examine the paper- ami prepare the answers. I asked him if he could, 

 without inconvenience, state the substance of the answer that had been 

 -em. He said, certainly: ii had been that as, on the one hand, Great 

 Britain could not permit the ves els of the United States to fish within 

 the creeks and close upon the shores of the British territories, so, on 

 the other hand, it was by do menu- her intention to interrupt them in 

 fishing anywhere in the open sea. or without the territorial jurisdic 

 t ion. a marine league from the shore; and, t here fore, that the warning 



given at the place 3tated, in the Case referred to, was altogether mi 



authorized. I replied, thai the particular act of the British coin 

 mander in this instance, being disavowed, I trusted that the British 

 Government, before adopting any final determination upon the sub 

 ject, would estimate, in candor, and in that spirit of amity which my 

 own Government was anxiously de irous of maintaining in our rela- 

 tion- with this country, the considerations which I was instructed to 

 present in support of the right of the people of the Tinted States to 



fish on the whole COasI of North America, which they have uniformly 



