160 APPENDIX TO BKITISH CASE. 



either party westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with 

 its harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within 

 the same, be free and open to the vessels, subjects, or citizens of the 

 two Powers, respectively, for the purposes of trade and commerce. 

 It being well understood that nothing contained in this article shall 

 be taken to affect the claims of any other Power or State to any 

 part of the said country : the only object of the two high contracting 

 parties being to prevent disputes and differences between themselves. 



94 No. 40. 1818, October 20: Extracts from Letter from Messrs. 

 Gallatin and Rush (at London] to the Secretary of State. 



We have the honour to transmit a convention which we concluded 

 this day with the British plenipotentiaries. 



Lord Castlereagh having expressed a wish that the negotiations 

 might be opened before his departure for Aix-la-Chapelle, Mr. Gal- 

 latin left Paris as soon as he had received our full powers, and arrived 

 here on the 16th of August. Our joint instructions contained in your 

 despatch of the 28th of July did not, however, reach us till the 3d of 

 September. We had long conversations with Lord Castlereagh at 

 his country seat, on the 22d and 23d of August, but could not, owing 

 to our instructions not having arrived, discuss with him the questions 

 of the fisheries and of the West India intercourse. He left London 

 on the 1st of September. The official conferences had begun on the 

 27th of August, and, for the progress of the negotiation, we beg leave 

 to refer to the enclosed copies of the protocol, and documents annexed 

 to it, and of two unofficial notes sent by us to the British plenipoten- 

 tiaries. We will add some observations on the several objects embraced 

 by the convention. 



1. Fisheries. 



We succeeded in securing, besides the rights of taking and curing 

 fish within the limits designated by our instructions, as a sine qua non, 

 the liberty of fishing on the coasts of the Magdalen Islands, and of 

 the western coast of Newfoundland, and the privilege of entering for 

 shelter, wood, and water, in all the British harbours of North Amer- 

 ica. Both were suggested as important to our fishermen, in the com- 

 munications on that subject w r hich were transmitted to us with our 

 instructions. To the exception of the exclusive rights of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company we did not object, as it was virtually implied in 

 the treaty of 1783, and we had never, any more than the British sub- 

 jects, enjoyed any right there; the charter of that company having 

 been granted in the year 1670. The exception applies only to the 

 coasts and their harbours, and does not affect the right of fishing in 

 Hudson's Bay beyond three miles from the shores, a right which 

 could not exclusively belong to, or be granted by, any nation. 



The most difficult part of the negotiation related to the permanence 

 of the right. To obtain the insertion in the body of the convention 

 of a provision declaring expressly that that right should not be abro- 

 gated by war, was impracticable. All that could be done was to ex- 



