164 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



depend on the list which might be proposed. To extend it to other 

 articles, in the circuitous intercourse through Halifax and Bermuda, 

 would give to the British the exclusive carriage of those articles 

 from those ports to the West Indies, and vice versa, and be incon- 

 sistent with the avowed object of the United States that of an equal 

 participation in the navigation necessary for the transportation of the 

 articles of which their trade with the West Indies, as allowed by Great 

 Britain, actually consisted. Yet we were disposed to pay due regard 

 to the various considerations which had been presented by Great 

 Britain, and to listen to any specific proposals she might be prepared 

 to make. No part of the articles we had offered was, with the excep- 

 tion of the basis of perfect reciprocity, to be considered as an ulti- 

 matum. We would, however, say that we could not assent to any 

 article which did not admit, on the one hand, naval stores and the 

 whole of our lumber, and, on the other, salt, molasses, and. besides 

 rum, a limited quantity of sugar and coffee, amongst the articles of 

 the direct trade. 



With respect to duties, after having suggested without success that 

 a maximum of those intended for the protection of the produce of 

 the British dominions might be agreed on, we stated that there were 

 at least two provisions which could not be objected to, viz: that the 

 United States should remain at liberty to lay higher duties on the 

 colonial produce of the British possessions than on that of those 

 countries where we were or might be received on better terms than 

 in the British West Indies; and that the condition which would pre- 

 clude generally such higher duties being laid should not apply to 

 the West India articles not admitted to be exported directly there- 

 from in American vessels to the United States. 



The result of several free conversations was, that, as it was alto- 

 gether improbable that we could, at this time, come to a definitive ar- 

 rangement, the British plenipotentiaries should offer an article with 

 the intention of its being referred to our Government. 



It will be perceived by this, that they admit the principle of 

 reciprocity; that they make no exception with respect to the descrip- 

 tion of vessels; that, giving up the article formerly proposed for 

 Turk's Island, they also admit that vessels employed in the trade 

 may touch from one port to another, and that to the list of articles 

 formerly proposed are added naval stores, shingles, and staves, and a 

 more general description of provisions. They continue to except 

 altogether, on the one hand, sugar and coffee, and, on the other, 

 salted fish and provisions, and every other species of lumber but 

 shingles and staves. The only essential difference between this list 

 of articles and that proposed for the intercourse with Bermuda and 

 the northern colonies consists, as far as relates to the produce of the 

 United States, in the lumber not admitted in the direct intercourse; 

 for salted fish and provisions are equally excluded from both: but 

 it is proposed that not only sugar and coffee, but also all articles of 

 the produce or manufacture of any of the British dominions, should 

 be admitted through that indirect channel into the United States. 

 We stated, when we received the article, that it ought to embrace 

 only American products, and that the proposal was certainly inadmis- 

 sible so far as related to East India articles. 



With respect to the ports they offer in the West Indies, they are 

 the same with those proposed by us, with the exception of St. Chris- 



