DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 157 



by either party on the continent of America westward of the Stony 

 Mountains ; " or, that the proposed article should be amended in the 

 manner stated in the enclosed copy. 



92 No. 37. 1818, October 9: Protocol of the Sixth Conference 

 held between the American and British Plenipotentiaries at 

 Whitehall. 



Present : Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Rush, Mr. Robinson. 



The American plenipotentiaries declared that they could not agree 

 to the article upon the fisheries brought forward by the British pleni- 

 potentiaries at the preceding conference, nor to that respecting the 

 navigation of the Mississippi, nor to any article that would bring the 

 British in contact with that river. 



They also stated that they could not take into consideration the 

 article respecting the intercourse with Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick, unconnected with the subject of the British West Indies. 



They presented several amendments (A, B) to the articles respect- 

 ing the boundary line and slaves carried away, proposed at the last 

 conference by the British plenipotentiaries. 



It was agreed to meet again on Tuesday, the 13th instant. 



ALBERT GALLATIN, 

 RICHARD RUSH, 

 FREDERICK JOHN*ROBINSON. 



No. 38. 1818, October 10: Extract from letter from Mr. Robinson 

 (Board of Trade) to Viscount Castlereagh. 



******* 



I then proceeded to state to them that upon the fishery article, we 

 were not disposed to insist upon the exclusion of those points, the 

 introduction of which they had at our last conference represented to 

 be a sine qua non : and after some discussion it was also agreed on our 

 part not to insist upon the two provisions contained in our proposed 

 article respecting the fishing in rivers and smuggling, to which they 

 felt very considerable objections, and which did not appear to me lo 

 be of such importance as to require to be urged in a way that might 

 prevent an arrangement upon the fisheries taking place. There still 

 however remains a point undecided upon this question which in- 

 volves considerations of great moment 



They represent it to be an indispensable condition on their part 

 that the article respecting the fisheries should be not only permanent 

 in the ordinary sense of conventional stipulations which are limited 

 by no precise time, but permanent in such a way as not to be abro- 

 gated by any future war. They have therefore introduced the words 

 " for ever " into the article itself ; and they accompanied the propo- 

 sition of it (as your Lordship will see by referring to our despatch 

 No. ) with a memorandum explanatory of the view in which they 

 offered, and were ready to sign an article on this subject. Our in- 

 tention had been to meet this memorandum with a counter declara- 



