DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 105 



Though claims of an extension of jurisdiction beyond the cannon 

 shot or the three miles have been asserted and maintained in partic- 

 ular instances by most maritime Powers and especially by ourselves 

 and the Spaniards we meet with few instances of a recognition of 

 such claims in treaties, probably owing to the unreasonable extent to 

 which the respective honour of nations has been pledged to support 

 them. The acquiescence in the right of fisheries at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the coast, sometimes at twenty leagues, and the submission 

 to revenue laws, such as our hovering Acts &c, might indeed be 

 argued with some plausibility as a proof of the exception allowed 

 by nations to the general limitation of maritime jurisdiction. 

 " By our treaty of peace and commerce with Tripoli, concluded 19th 

 of September 1751, it is stipulated that the vessels of Tripoli shall 

 not cruise or look for prizes within sight of the island of Minorca or 

 city of Gibraltar; and the same stipulation is introduced into our 

 treaty with Tunis, of the 19th of October 1751, with this addition, 

 that any prize taken by the ships of Tunis within ten miles of the 

 aforesaid places shall be restored without any contradiction; and 

 Spain in her treaty with Tripoli, of 1784, stipulated that the Tripo- 

 line corsairs should not capture vessels within ten leagues of her 

 coast. 



If your Lordship should deem it expedient on other grounds to 

 concede any extension of jurisdiction to the United States be- 

 yond that which their independence necessarily implies, the 

 62 American commissioners have more than once assured us that 

 they are ready in the article itself to acknowledge it as an ex- 

 ception to the general rule arising from the particular circumstances 

 of their situation and peculiar nature of their coast. We shall also 

 observe that their utmost expectation after our conversations on the 

 subject, is two marine leagues. 



The disadvantages of such a stipulation to us would be the addi- 

 tional protection of a league to our enemies and to our deserters in 

 the American service, and a fear has also been expressed by a very 

 intelligent sea officer, that the difficulty of ascertaining the distance 

 would add to the frequency of the disputes. But without dwelling 

 on the uncertainty of the criterion at present resorted to for ascer- 

 taining the distance, viz the depth of the water, a reference to the 

 cases which have occurred during this and the late war would amply 

 prove that as far as the practice of our cruisers is concerned, the 

 present limits of jurisdiction are no security against mistake or at 

 least against litigation. 



We might on the other hand derive some little advantage from the 

 claim it would justify of an extended jurisdiction and consequent 

 protection of revenue and commerce on the coasts of our colonial 

 possessions. But the chief benefit we could expect to derive from it 

 is the conviction in the American public of our conciliatory disposi- 

 tion towards them, an object which the language and conduct of Mr. 

 Monroe and Mr. Pinkney have persuaded us that they and the Ameri- 

 can Government have as much at heart as any of those which were 

 the immediate causes of their mission. They are anxious to remove 

 the causes which led to the misunderstanding between the two coun- 

 tries, but it is obvious that they are more anxious to prevent the con- 

 sequences of that misunderstanding. The ferment occasioned by it is 



