526 MISCELLANEOUS 



for the purpose of drawing up the articles of peace. At that time, 

 however, the circumstances had very considerably changed since the 

 Treaty of 1783 had been concluded. The British North American 

 possessions had become more thickly populated, and there were fewer 

 unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks in Nova Scotia than formerly. 

 There was consequently greater risk of collision between British and 

 American interests; and the colonists and English merchants engaged 

 in the fisheries petitioned strongly against a renewal of the privileges 

 granted by the treaty of 1783 to the American fishermen. 



It was under these circumstances that the negotiations for peace 

 were entered into. At the first meeting, which took place on the 

 8th of August, 1814, the British commissioners stated " that the 

 British Government did not intend to grant to the United States 

 gratuitously the privileges formerly granted to them by the treaty 

 of fishing within the limits of British territory, or of using the 

 shores of the British territories for purposes connected with the fish- 

 eries." They contended that the claim advanced by the United States, 

 of immemorial and prescriptive right, was quite untenable, inasmuch 

 as the inhabitants of the United States had until quite recently been 

 British subjects, and that the rights which they possessed formerly 

 as such could not be continued to them after they had become citizens 

 of an independent state. 



After much discussion, it was finally agreed to omit all mention of 

 this question from the treaty, which was signed at Ghent on the 24th 

 December, 1814, and which contains no reference to the fisheries 

 question. 



Orders were now sent out to the governors of the British North 

 American colonies not to interfere with citizens of the United States 

 engaged in fishing on the Newfoundland Banks, in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence, or on the high seas, but to prevent them from using the 

 British territory for purposes connected with the fishery, and to 

 exclude their fishing-vessels from the harbors, bays, rivers, and creeks 

 of all Her Majesty's Possessions. Orders were also given to the 

 British naval officers on the Halifax station to resist any encroach- 

 ment on the part of American fishermen on the rights of Great 

 Britain. The result was the capture of several American fishing- 

 vessels for trespassing within British waters; and the President of 

 the United States in 1818 proposed to the Prince Kegent that nego- 

 tiations should be opened tor the purpose of settling in an amicable 

 manner disputed points which had arisen connected with the fish- 

 eries. Commissioners were accordingly appointed by both parties to 

 meet in London, and the Convention of 20th October, 1818, was 

 eventually signed. 



Article 1 of this Convention is in these words: 



[Here follows the Article.] 



Subsequent to the conclusion of this Convention, in consequence 

 of numerous complaints on the part of Her Majesty's Government 

 of encroachments on their waters by American fishermen, the United 

 States Government issued a notice warning their subjects that they 

 were " to observe strictly the limits assigned for taking, drying, and 

 curing, fish by the fishermen of the United States, under the 1st 

 Article of the' Convention of the 20th of October, 1818 ", a copy of 

 which was annexed to the circular notice. 



