10 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



turb the subjects or Inhabitants of the said United States in taking 

 fish on the Banks, seas and places formerly used and frequented by 

 them, so as not to encroach on the territorial rights which may remain 

 to her after the termination of the present war as aforesaid, and war 

 should thereupon break out between the said United States and Great 

 Britain ; or if Great Britain shall molest or disturb the subjects and 

 Inhabitants of France in taking Fish on the Banks, Seas and places 

 formerly used and frequented by them, so as not to encroach on the 

 territorial rights oi Great Britain as aforesaid, and war should there- 

 upon break out between France and Great Britain. In either of 

 those cases of war as aforesaid His Most Christian Majesty and the 

 said United States shall make it a common cause, and aid each other 

 mutually with their good offices their counsel and their forces, accord- 

 ing to the exigence of conjunctures as becomes good and faithful 

 allies. 



Those proceedings of Congress were in 1779. On the 8th January, 

 1782 (the very year in which the preliminary Articles of Peace were 

 signed) a committee of Congress, in dealing with a petition of the 

 State of Massachusetts, distinctly declared that the American claim 

 (App., p. 29)- 



does not extend to any parts of the sea lying within three leagues of 

 the shores held by Great Britain or any other nation. 



Part of the report was as follows (App., p. 28) : 



Another claim is the common right of the United States to take 

 fish in the North American seas, and particularly on the banks of 

 Newfoundland. With respect to this object, the said Ministers are 

 instructed to consider and contend for it, as described in the instruc- 

 tions relative to a treaty of commerce, given to John Adams on the 

 twenty-ninth of September, 1779, as equally desired and expected by 

 Congress with any of the other claims not made ultimate in the in- 

 structions given to the Ministers plenipotentiary for negotiating a 

 peace on the day of last, and are therein referred to as 



objects of the desires and expectations of Congress. They are also 

 instructed to observe to His Most Christian Majesty with respect to 

 this claim, that it does not extend to any parts of the sea lying within 

 three leagues of the shores held by Great Britain or any other nation. 

 That under this limitation it is conceived by Congress, a common 

 right of taking fish cannot be denied to them without a manifest 

 violation of the freedom of the seas, as established by the law of 

 nations, and the dictates of reason ; according to both which the use 



of the sea, except such parts thereof as lie in the vicinity of the 

 14 shore, and are deemed appurtenant thereto, is common to all 



nations, those only excepted who have either by positive con- 

 vention, or by long and silent acquiescence under exclusion, renounced 

 that common right. 



SUMMARY. 



These quotations make the following propositions indisputable: 



1. No claim at all was made by the United States to any rights 



upon British soil. In the resolutions declaratory of its demands, 



