168 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



That, in particular, it would be found to adopt the description of 

 naval stores and of lumber, as articles to be exported from the United 

 States, upon which the British plenipotentiaries had themselves in- 

 sisted confining the former to pitch, tar, and turpentine, and the 

 latter to staves, headings, and shingles, contrary to the more enlarged 

 signification which it had been the desire of the American pleni- 

 potentiaries to give to them ; that it acquiesced, also, in the exclusion 

 of all salted provisions, including the important article of fish; that 

 it, moreover, came wholly into the British views in consenting to the 

 exclusion of sugar and coffee as articles to be imported into the 

 United States from the British West Indies; it being understood 

 that the above traffic was to be opened upon equal terms, in all 

 respects, to American and British vessels. 



In return for such an accommodation to the colonial views of Great 

 Britain, the project asked, on the other hand, that the list of articles 

 exportable from the United States to the West Indies should be the 

 same as to Bermuda and to the British North American colonies; 

 that the articles exportable to the United States should be confined 

 to such as were of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the above 

 islands or colonies; and that the same duties, and no more, should be 

 payable on importations from the United States into the West Indies, 

 whether the articles were brought directly or indirectly, as on similar 

 articles imported into the West Indies from any foreign country, or 

 from any of the British colonies. 



With this outline of its contents, I handed a copy of the pro jet 

 which came enclosed in your despatch to his Lordship. The discus- 

 sions between the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments having 

 recently been so ample on the matters which it embraces, I thought 

 that nothing was likely to be gained by my leaving room for the 

 possible hope that any of its essential provisions would be departed 

 from. Accordingly, I deemed it best to say with candour, in the 

 first instance, that, as it was offered, so was it to be taken ; for that 

 my present instructions would admit of no deviations, unless on points 

 verbal, or otherwise immaterial. I shall bear in mind that the parts 

 within crotchets may be omitted. His Lordship received it with an 

 assurance that a full and candid consideration would be given to it. 

 The pressure of parliamentary business might, he said, delay an at- 

 tention to it for some weeks, but that, at as early a day as was prac- 

 ticable, it would be taken up. I replied that I believed that the great 

 object would be attained on our side if a decision were communicated 

 to me in full time to be made known to the President before the next 

 session of Congress. Should our propositions prove acceptable, I 

 was empowered, I added, to make them supplementary to the con- 

 vention of the 20th of October, subject always to the ratification of 

 the Senate. I here closed, having endeavoured, in the course of my 

 remarks, to convey to his Lordship's mind those general reasonings 

 applicable to our propositions which are unfolded in your despatch, 

 and to which I shall again advert on future occasions, should it be- 

 come necessary. The confidential report of the 19th of February, by 

 the Committee of Foreign Relations in the Senate, was safely re- 

 ceived under cover of your despatch. 



