DESPATCHES, REPOKTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 145 



general regulation; in virtue of which, it shall be made the duty of 

 the officers of the customs to repay the extra duties in all cases in 

 which they shall have been levied, without exposing the individual 

 to lose his right by his own ignorance, or by the negligence or in- 

 fidelity of his consignee. 



5. Fisheries. 



The proceedings, deliberations, and communications upon this sub- 

 ject, which took place at the negotiation of Ghent, will be fresh in 

 the remembrance of Mr. Gallatin. Mr. Rush possesses copies of the 

 correspondence with the British Government relating to it after the 

 conclusion of the peace, and of that which has passed here between 

 Mr. Bagot and this Government. Copies of several letters received 

 by Members of Congress during the late session, from the parts of the 

 country most deeply interested in the fisheries, are now transmitted. 



The president authorises you to agree to an article whereby the 

 United States will desist from the liberty of fishing, and curing and 

 drying fish, within the British jurisdiction generally, upon condition 

 that it shall be secured as a permanent right, not liable to be impaired 

 by any future war, from Cape Ray to the Ramea Islands, and from 

 Mount Joli, on the Labrador coast, through the strait of Belleisle, in- 

 definitely north, along the coast; the right to extend as well to curing 

 and drying the fish as to fishing. 



By the decree of the judge of the vice-admiralty court at Halifax, on 

 the 20th of August last, in the case of several American fishing vessels 

 which had been captured and sent into that port, a copy of which is 

 also now transmitted to you, it appears that all those captures have 

 been illegal. An appeal from this decree was entered by the captors 

 to the appellate court in England, and the owners of the captured 

 vessels were obliged to give bonds to stand the issue of the appeal. 

 Mr. Rush was instructed to employ suitable counsel for these 

 85 cases if the appeals should be entered, and, as we have been 

 informed by him, has accordingly done so. If you do not suc- 

 ceed in agreeing upon an article on this subject, it will be desirable 

 that the question upon the right should be solemnly argued before 

 the Lords of Appeals, and that counsel of the first eminence should be 

 employed in it. Judge Wallace agreed with the advocate general that 

 the late war completely dissolved every right of the people of the 

 United States acquired by the treaty of 1783. But it does not appear 

 that this question had been argued before him. and the contrary 

 opinion is not to be surrendered on the part of the United States 

 upon the dictum of a vice-admiralty court. Besides this, we claim 

 the rights in question not as acquired by the treaty of 1783, but as 

 having always before enjoyed them, and as only recognised as be- 

 longing to us by that treaty, and therefore never to be divested from 

 us but by our own consent. Judge Wallace, however, explicitly says 

 that he does not see how he can condemn these vessels without fin Act 

 of Parliament; and whoever knows anything of the English constitu- 

 tion must see that on this point he is unquestionably right. He says. 

 indeed, something about an order in council, but it is very clear that 

 would not answer. It is a question of forfeiture for a violated ter- 

 ritorial-jurisdiction; which forfeiture can be incurred not by the law 

 92909 S. Doc. S70, 61^3, vol 4 20 



