PERTAINING TO NEGOTIATION OF TREATY OP 1818. 269 



It was highly satisfactory to be informed that the conduct of 

 Captain Lock, commander of the sloop of war Jaseur, in warning 

 American fishing vessels not to come within sixty miles of the coast 

 of His Majesty's possessions in North America, was unauthorized, 

 and that the instructions to the British officers on that station, far 

 from warranting such a procedure, had directed them not even to 

 molest the American fishing vessels which might be found pursuing 

 that occupation during the present year. In offering a just tribute of 

 acknowledgment to the fairness and liberality of these instructions 

 issued from your lordship's office, there only remained the regret that 

 the execution had been so different from them in spirit, so opposite to 

 them in effect. 



But, in disavowing the particular act of the officer who had pre- 

 sumed to forbid American fishing vessels from approaching within 

 sixty miles of the American coast, and in assuring me that it had been 

 the intention of this Government, and the instructions given by your 

 lordship, not even to deprive the American fishermen of any of their 

 accustomed liberties during the present year, your lordship did also 

 express it as the intention of the British Government to exclude the 

 fishing vessels of the United States, hereafter, from the liberty of 

 fishing within one marine league of the shores of all the British 

 territories in North America, and from that of drying and curing 

 t heir fish on the unsettled parts of those territories, and, with the con- 

 sent of the inhabitants, on those parts which have become settled since 

 t he peace of 1783. 



I then expressed to your lordship my earnest hope that this de- 

 termination had not been irrevocably taken, and stated the instruc- 

 tions which I had received to present to the consideration of His 

 Majesty's Government the grounds upon which the United States con- 

 ceive those liberties to stand, and upon which they deem that such 

 exclusion cannot be effected without an infraction of the rights of the 

 American people. 



In adverting to the origin of these liberties, it will be admitted, I 



presume, without question, that, from the time of the settlements in 



North Ajnerica, which now constitute the United States, until their 



separation from Great Britain, and their establishment as distinct 



ereigni ie-. t hese Libert Lea of fishing, and of diving and curing fish, 



hail been enjoyed by them in common with the other subjects of the 

 British empire. In point, of principle, they were pre-eminently en- 

 titled to the enjoymeni ; and. in point of Pact, (hey had enjoyed more 

 of them than any other port ion of the empire; their sett lenient of the 

 neighboring country having naturally led to the discovery and im- 

 provement of these fisheries, and their proximity to the places where 



t ln-y are prosecuted ; and the necessities of their condition having Led 

 them to i he di c<, very of t he most advantageous fishing grounds, and 

 given t hem facilities in (he pursuil of their occupation in those regions 

 which the remoter parts of the empire could not possess. It mighl be 

 added, that they had contributed their full -hare, and more than their 

 share, in securing the conquest from France of the provinces on the 

 coasts on which these fisherie were situated. 



It was, doubtless, upon consideration such as these (hat. in the 

 treaty of peace between His Majesty and (lie United States of 1783, 

 an expre tipulation wa it i rt< d, recognii ing the rights and Liber 



