290 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., PRIOR TO TREATY OF 1818 



sirable that I should bring under one view the substance of what I 

 have already had the honor of stating to you in the several confer- 

 ences which we have held upon this business. 



It is not necessary for me to advert to the discussion which has 

 taken place between Earl Bathurst and Mr. Adams. In the corre- 

 spondence which has passed between them, you will have already 

 seen, in the notes of the former, a full exposition of the grounds upon 

 which the liberty of drying and fishing within the British limits, as 

 granted to the citizens of the United States by the treaty of 1783, 

 was considered to have ceased with the war, and not to have been 

 revived by the late treaty of peace. 



You will also have seen therein detailed the serious considerations 

 a ffecting not only the prosperity of the British fishery, but the general 

 interests of the British dominions, in matters of revenue as well as 

 government, which made it incumbent upon His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment to oppose the renewal of so extensive and injurious a conces- 

 sion, within the British sovereignty, to a foreign state, founded upon 

 no principle of reciprocity or adequate compensation whatever. It 

 has not been thought necessary to furnish me with additional argu- 

 ment upon this point. I therefore confine myself, upon the present 

 occasion, to a brief repetition of what I have already, at different 

 periods, had the honor to submit to your consideration upon the sub- 

 ject of an arrangement by which it is hoped practically to reconcile 

 the different views of our respective Governments. 



It will be in your recollection that, early in the month of July 

 last, I had the honor to acquaint you that I had received instructions 

 from my Government to assure you that, although it had been felt 

 necessary to resist the claim which had been advanced by Mr. Adams, 

 the determination had not been taken in any unfriendly feeling to- 

 wards America, or with any illiberal wish to deprive her subjects of 

 adequate means of engaging in the fisheries; but that, on the con- 

 trary, many of the considerations which had been urged by Mr. 

 Adams, on behalf of the American citizens formerly engaged in this 

 occupation, had operated so forcibly in favor of granting to them 

 such a concession as might be consistent with the just rights and in- 

 terests of Great Britain, that I had been furnished with full powers 

 from His Royal Highness the Prince Regent to conclude an arrange- 

 ment upon the subject, which it was hoped might at once offer to the 

 United States a pledge of His Royal Highness's goodwill, and afford 

 to them a reasonable participation of those benefits of which they 

 had formerly the enjoyment. 



It being the object of the American Government, that, in addition 

 to the right of fishery, as declared by the first branch of the fourth 

 article of the treaty of 1783 permanently to belong to the citizens of 

 the United States, they should also enjoy the privilege of having an 

 adequate accommodation, both in point of harbors and drying ground, 

 on the unsettled coasts within the British sovereignty, I had the 

 honor to propose to you that that part of the southern coast of Lab- 

 rador which extends from Mount Joli, opposite the eastern end of the 

 island of Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the bay and isles 

 of Esquimaux, near the western entrance of the straits of Belleisle, 

 should be allotted for this purpose, it being distinctly agreed that the 

 fishermen should confine themselves to the unsettled parts of the 



