92 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



No. 21791, February 1 : Extract from Report of Thomas Jefferson, 

 United States Secretary of State, on Cod and Whale Fisheries 

 made to the House of Representatives? 



******* 



It will now be proper to count the advantages which aid, and the 

 disadvantages which oppose us, in this conflict. 

 Our advantages are 



1. The neighbourhood of the great fisheries, which permits our 

 fishermen to bring home their fish to be salted by their wives and 

 children. 



2. The shore fisheries, so near at hand as to enable the vessels to 

 run into port in a storm, and so lessen the risk, for which distant 

 nations must pay insurance. 



3. The winter fisheries, which, like household manufactures, employ 

 portions of time which would otherwise be useless. 



4. The smallness of the vessels which the shortness of the voyage 

 enables us to employ, and which consequently require but a small 

 capital. 



5. The cheapness of our vessels, which do not cost above the half of 

 the Baltic fur vessels, computing price and duration. 



6. Their excellence as sea-boats, which decreases the risk and 

 quickens the return. 



7. The superiority of our mariners in skill, activity, enterprise, 

 sobriety, and order. 



8. The cheapness of provisions. 



9. The cheapness of casks, which of itself is said to be equal to 



an extra profit of 15 per cent. 

 54 These advantages are of such force that, while experience 



has proved that no other nation can make a mercantile profit 

 on the Newfoundland fishery, nor can support it without national aid, 

 we can make a living profit if vent for our fish can be procured. 



No. 3. 1793, May 15: Letter from Mr. Jefferson {United States Sec- 

 retary of State) to M. Ternant (French Minister). 



PHILADELPHIA, May 15, 1793. 



SIR: Having received several memorials from the British Minister, 

 on subjects arising out of the present war, I take the liberty of inclos- 

 ing them to you, and shall add an explanation of the determinations 

 of the Government thereon. These will serve to vindicate the prin- 

 ciples on which it is meant to proceed, and which are to be applied 

 with impartiality to the proceedings of both parties. They will form, 

 therefore, as far as they go, a rule of action for them and for us. 



* * X * * * 



The capture of the British ship Grange, by the French frigate 

 1'Embuscade, within the Delaware, has been the subject of a former 

 letter to you. On full and mature consideration, the Government 



a Relates to fishery competition with other nationalities. 



