UNITED STATES CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 621 



government, and that if an Act of Parliament was wanted, it would 

 be obtained in a week's time and without opposition. If the sub- 

 ject was not arranged, immediate collision must ensue, and, Great 

 Britain proceeding under legal forms to* condemn our vessels, no 

 resource remained for us but to acquiesce or commence hostilities. 

 With much reluctance I yielded to those considerations, rendered 

 more powerful by our critical situation with Spain, and used my 

 best endeavors to make the compromise on the most advantageous 

 terms that could be obtained. After a thorough examination of the 

 communications on the subject which you transmitted to us, I think 

 that substantially we have lost very little, if anything; and I only 

 wish that it had been practicable to give to the agreement the form 

 of an exchange in direct terms; that is to say, that we give fishing 

 rights in certain quarters in consideration of the right of curing 

 fish on a part of Newfoundland and of the abandonment of the 

 British claim to the navigation of the Mississippi. This, however, 

 could not be done in a positive manner, the British plenipotentiaries 

 disclaiming any right to that navigation, and objecting, therefore, to 

 a renunciation of what they did not claim. The article which they 

 proposed on this last subject was only, as they said, an equivalent 

 for what they .pretended to concede in agreeing that the boundary 

 west of the Lake of the Woods should be fixed at the 49th degree of 

 north latitude. 



The renewal of the commercial convention and the propositions 

 relative to the colonial intercourse will make the subject of a distinct 

 despatch. 



I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient 

 servant. 



Extracts from " Memoirs of John Quincy Adams" ~by G. F. Adams, 



pub. 1875. 

 ******* 



March, 1818. 



18th. Walking this morning to the President's, I met Mr. Bagot, 

 who turned and walked with me. He told me that he had received 

 letters from Admiral Milne, commanding on the Jamaica station, in- 

 forming him that he had issued orders similar to those of last year, to 

 seize all American vessels which may be found fishing within the 

 British Jurisdiction, and that he could not take upon himself the 

 responsibility of counteracting those orders. He had been promised a 

 proposal from us ever since last May, and had received none yet. 



I told him that the President's illness had prevented it ; that upon 

 full enquiry it had been -found that we could not safely accept any 

 particular limited bounds for fishing-grounds, because the fish re- 

 sorted at different times to different places; that Lord Castlereagh 

 had promised me he would direct certain statements to be furnished 

 to us upon which we might have founded proposals, which was not 

 done; that he should have counteracted Admiral Milne's order, be- 

 cause the Judge at Halifax had decided last year that those seizures 

 were unlawful without an act of Parliament; that I was afraid we 

 should have to fight for this matter in the end, and I was so confident 

 of our right, I was for it. 



