76 CASE OP GREAT BRITAIH. 



CONVENTION OF 1806. 



1806. During the negotiations with reference to freedom of United 

 States vessels from British seizure, an attempt was made to fix by 

 agreement the limit of United States jurisdiction upon its coasts; 

 and the United States, suggesting that a fair distance would be as 

 far out as (App., p. 60) " the well-defined path of the gulf stream," 

 asked that the following might be agreed to : 



It is agreed that all armed vessels belonging to either of the parties 

 engaged in war shall be effectually restrained by positive orders, and 

 penal provisions, from seizing, searching, or otherwise interrupting 

 or disturbing vessels to whomsoever belonging, whether outward or 

 inward bound, within the harbours or the chambers formed by head- 

 lands, or anywhere at sea, within the distance of four leagues from 

 the shore, or from a right line from one headland to another. 



After negotiations, the limit was fixed at " 5 marine miles from the 

 shore," but the convention never became effective. 



It is clear from these facts that the United States did not at this 

 time claim that the jurisdiction of Great Britain over her territorial 

 waters was limited to the extent that is now suggested. 



PRACTICE OF UNITED STATES FISHERMEN, 1818. 



In the early years after 1818, the defence always offered by the 

 United States fishermen, when challenged for entering bays on the 

 non-treaty coasts was, not that the bays were open ocean, but that 

 they had entered for one of the four purposes mentioned in the 

 treaty, namely, shelter, repairs, wood, or water. Taking advantage 

 of the absence of a sufficient naval police force, they very frequently 

 entered the bays in order to procure supplies of forbidden sorts; 

 but they always protested their innocence of intention to exceed 

 their treaty right. They never contended that they had a right to 

 enter the larger bays for all purposes. 



87 MR. LYMAN, 1828. 



1828. It was during this first period that Mr. Theodore Lyman 

 published his valuable work on " Diplomacy of the United States." 

 The second edition (1828), dealing with the treaty of 1818, sum- 

 marized its effects and concluded as follows: 



We have lost the Bay of Chaleurs fishing, so important formerly 

 as to confer a name on a particular description of fish as well as 

 vessels. 



The only reason for the loss was that the Bay of Chaleurs was a 

 " bay," and that the United States had renounced " bays " ; for the 



Vol. 2, p. 100. 



