110 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



ventions had been previously concluded between France and the 

 United States regarding the right to fish in the same localities. 



The United States pledged themselves, by Article 10 of the Treaty 

 concluded between them and France on February 6, 1778, never to 

 disturb the subjects of the Most Christian King in the enjoyment and 

 exercise of the right to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, nor in the 

 perpetual and exclusive enjoyment which belonged to them OR the 

 part of the coasts of this island designated in the treaty of Utrecht. 



A similar provision was inserted in the convention concluded 

 September 30, 1800, between the two Powers ; and Article 27 declares 

 that neither of the two Nations shall come and participate in the 

 fisheries of the other on its coasts, or disturb it in the exercise of the 

 rights which it has now or which it might acquire on the coasts of 

 Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, or anywhere else on the 

 coasts of America or north of the United States. 



Before this latter treaty was concluded with the United States, 

 France enjoyed the right of fishing and drying fish on the northern 

 and western coasts of Newfoundland, within the limits successively 

 determined by her treaties with England, to wit: By Article 13 of 

 the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, by Article 5 of the Treaty of 1763, and 

 by Article 5 of the treaty of 1783. The United States, after recogniz- 

 ing the right of France, and after declaring in Article 10 of the 

 Treaty concluded with her in 1778 that they would never disturb her 

 in her perpetual and exclusive enjoyment, could not modify their 

 original pledges on this point without her consent. The convention 

 which they concluded in 1818 with England has not changed their 

 relations with France; and when they obtained from England the 

 freedom of fishing on a part of the coasts of Newfoundland, they 

 could not in reality obtain more than a freedom necessarily limited 

 by their own pledges toward France and by the declaration which 

 they made not to disturb her in the exercise of her rights, a declara- 

 tion which was renewed in the convention concluded in 1800 between 

 the United States and France. 



The duration of this convention was only 8 years, it is true, and 

 after the expiration of that period it ceased to be in force. However, 

 the ancient rights which it recognized could not have been destroyed 

 because the period of its execution had expired, for these rights 

 existed previously and were not the result of a concession on the part 

 of the United States, Article 10 of The treaty of 1778, in which these 

 rights were recalled, merely confirming their genuineness by recog- 

 nizing that the perpetual and exclusive enjoyment of the fishing 

 rights on a part of the coasts of Newfoundland belonged to France 

 in accordance with the real meaning of the treaties of Utrecht and 

 Paris. 



The question being brought up to this point, I must, Sir, consider 

 two very distinct parts of the new article which you have communi- 

 cated to me. 



France has no observation to make against the exercise of the right 

 of fishing and drying fish by Americans on the southern coast of New- 

 foundland. She has never enjoyed the right of fishing at this point 

 herself, and can have nothing to claim. 



As to the enjoyment of the right of fishing on the western coast, 

 the United States pledged themselves to France in 1778 never to 



