12 COUNTER-CASE OF GEEAT BRITAIN. 



the guarantee of the fisheries was not to be made " an ultimatum on 

 the present occasion." 



These conclusions make it abundantly clear that no claim as of 

 right to the coast fisheries was put forward by Congress, and that 

 no demand was -at any time made for a division of those fisheries on 

 the ground that they were the joint assets of the two nations. 



NEGOTIATIONS IN 1782. 



The same observation holds good of the negotiations in 1782. The 

 material papers have been printed in the appendix to this Counter- 

 Case, and they show that from first to last no suggestion was made 

 of any claim based on the theory of joint ownership. 



The question as to the right of fishing on the banks and in the 

 high seas did not provoke serious discussion, for Great Britain 

 acquiesced in that part of the demand of the United States. 



On the 19th November, 1782, Mr. Townshend sent to Mr. Strachey 

 a draft of a proposed treaty. The clause relating to fisheries in that 

 draft was as follows (App., p. 96) : 



Art. 3d. The citizens of the United States shall have the liberty 

 of taking fish of every kind on all the banks of Newfoundland, 

 16 and also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and also to dry and cure 

 their fish on the shores of the Isle of Sables and on the shores 

 of any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of the Magdalen 

 Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, so long as such bays, harbours 

 and creeks shall continue and remain unsettled. On condition that 

 the citizens of the said United States do not exercise the said fishery 

 but at the distance of Three leagues from all the coasts belonging 

 to Great Britain, as well those of the continent, as those of the 

 islands situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And as to .what 

 relates to the fishery on the coasts of the island of Cape Breton out 

 of the said gulf, the citizens of the said United States shall not be 

 permitted to exercise the said fishery, but at the distance of fifteen 

 leagues from the coasts of the island of Cape Breton. 



On the 25th November, this draft was discussed with the Ameri- 

 can negotiators, and Mr. Adams has recorded in detail, in his journal 

 (App., p. 101), the reasons by which he supported his plea for some 

 modification of the limitations proposed in it. It is significant that 

 he did not advance any claim to the coast fisheries on the ground that 

 they were in part the property of the United States. That would 

 have been a reason of force had he been able to sustain it, but there 

 is no reference to it of any kind whatever. The grounds on which 

 he urged the concession were quite different. Inter alia, they were 

 that Great Britain profited by the purchase of her manufactures by 

 American fishermen, and that American fishermen could not be 

 effectually prevented from fishing in all the waters prohibited in the 

 draft, and that there would be constant disputes if any attempt were 



