UNITED STATES CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 623 



which might be selected as very eligible now, might be, in the course 

 of four or five years, entirely deserted. For my own part, I had 

 always been averse to any proposal of accommodation. I thought our 

 whole right, as stipulated by the Treaty of 1783, so clear that I was 

 for maintaining the whole, and if force should be applied to prevent 

 our fishermen from frequenting the coast, I would have protested 

 against it, and reserved the right of recovering the whole by force 

 whenever we should be able. It had, however, been determined other- 

 wise here, and a proposal had been promised. Perhaps we should 

 ultimately offer to give up the right of drying and curing on the 

 shore, and reserve the whole right of fishing. 



He said that, whatever was done, he hoped to hear from me again 

 soon upon this and the other subjects of this interview. 



******* 



(August, 1818.) 



August 1st. Mr. Bagot called upon me at the office, and we had 

 conversation upon various subjects. 



******* 



He spoke also upon the fisheries, and said Lord Castlereagh had 

 written him that orders had again been issued to the naval officers on 

 the American station to suspend the captures of American fishing 

 vessels for the present season. This measure had been taken. 

 although the British Government had waited month after month to 

 receive the proposals which had been so long and so frequently 

 promised here. 



I told him that the delays which had occurred to the making of 

 those proposals had not been intentional, but occasioned by the 

 varying information which had been received from the parts of the 

 country most interested in the fisheries; and I added that if Mr. 

 Gallatin and Rush, to whom I should this day dispatch the final in- 

 structions for their commercial negotiation, should not be able to 

 conclude an article upon this subject, it would be our wish that a 

 final decision by the Lords of Appeal on the legality of the captures 

 of our fishing vessels, should take place, upon a full and solemn 

 argument of all the questions involved in it. 



(June, 



* 



18th. Note from the President of the United States, urging me to 

 sign the Convention with France. I sent to ask the French Min- 

 ister to call at the office, which he did. 



******* 



I spoke to him of the disturbance of our fishermen by French armed 

 vessels on the coast of Newfoundland, and told him I should write 

 to Mr. Gallatin on the subject. He said he had spoken to me or to 

 Mr. Rush concerning it several years ago; but that he would look 

 into the subject, and was disposed to do anything in it for our 

 accommodation. 



19th. This subject of the fisheries is absorbing so much of my 

 attention that it encroaches upon my other necessary occupations. 

 But I cannot give too deep attention to it. 



******* 



