108 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



tection or indulgence. You will, however, not fail to communicate 

 to them the tenor of the instructions which you have received and 

 the view which His Majesty's Government take of the question of the 

 fishery, and you will, above all, be careful to explain to them that 

 they are not in any future season to expect a continuance of the 

 same indulgence. 



I have, &c, (Signed) BATHURST. 



No. 15. 1815, July 21: Extract from Letter from Mr. Monroe 

 (United States Secretary of State] to Mr. Adams (United States 

 Minister at London) . 



******* 



Among the acts which we have to complain of with greatest earn- 

 estness is a late warning given by the commander of a British sloop 

 of war to our fishermen near the coast of the British northern colo- 

 nies to retire thence to the distance of twenty leagues. This, it is 

 presumed, has been done under a construction of the late treaty of 

 peace, which, by being silent on the subject, left that important in- 

 terest to rest on the ground on which it was placed by the treaty of 

 1783. The right to the fisheries required no new stipulation to sup- 

 port it. It was sufficiently secured by the treaty of 1783. This im- 

 portant subject will claim your early attention. The measure thus 

 promptly taken by the British Government, without any communica- 

 tion with this Government, notwithstanding the declaration of our 

 Ministers at Ghent that our right would not be affected by the silence 

 of the treaty, indicates a spirit which excites equal surprise and 

 regret one which by no means corresponds with the amicable rela- 

 tions established between the two countries by that treaty, or with 

 the spirit with which it has been executed by the United States. 



As you are well acquainted with the solidity of our right to the 

 fisheries in question, as well as to those on the Grand Bank, and 

 elsewhere on the main ocean, to the limit of a marine league 

 64 only from the coast, (for the pretension to remove us twenty 

 leagues is too absurd to be discussed), I shall not dilate on it. 

 especially at this time. It is sufficient to observe here, that the right 

 of the United States to take fish on the coast of Newfoundland, and 

 on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's 

 dominions in America, and to dry and cure fish in any of the un- 

 settled bays, harbours, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands. 

 and Labrador in short, that every right appertaining to the fish- 

 eries, which was secured by the treaty of 1783, stands now as un- 

 shaken and perfect as it then did, constituting a vital part of our 

 political existence, and resting on the same solid foundation as our 

 independence itself. In the act of dismemberment and partition, the 

 rights of each party were distinctly defined. So much of territory 

 and incidental rights were allotted to one. so much to the other; and 

 as well might it be said, because our boundary had not been retraced 

 in the late treaty, in every part, that certain portions of our territory 

 had reverted to England, as that our right to fish, by whatever name 

 secured, had experienced that fate. A liberty of unlimited duration, 



