22 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



27 it reserves liberties in these fisheries to the inhabitants of the 

 United States, the liberties so reserved were intended to be the 



identical liberties to which the American fishermen were previously 

 entitled under the second clause of Article III of the treaty of 1783. 



Referring to the negotiations which preceded the treaty of 1818, 

 the United States Case (p. 61) says: 



The question of the extent of the coasts on which such liberties 

 were to be reserved was the subject of discussion in the negotiations, 

 but it was settled beyond the possibility of question that the fishing 

 rights to be exercised on such coasts were to be the same as those 

 exercised on the same coasts under the provisions of the treaty of 

 1783. 



In reply it may be said that it cannot be possible that the liberties 

 ' of the treaty of 1818 " were intended to be the identical liberties " of 

 the treaty of 1783, for some of the liberties of the latter treaty were 

 entirely new: 



1. The treaty of 1783 gave liberty to take fish 



on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall 

 use; 



whereas the treaty of 1818 gave liberty to fish on certain specified 

 parts of the Newfoundland coast, whether British fishermen used 

 them or not. 



2. The treaty of 1783, in giving liberty to fish on the coast of New- 

 foundland, expressly said, " but not to dry or cure the same on that 

 island ; " whereas the treaty of 1818 gave liberty to dry and cure fish 

 on part of the southern coast of that island. 



The lack of continuity between the two treaties appears, moreover, 

 in the specific and persistent refusal of the British Government to 

 recognise the existence of the earlier treaty when negotiating the 

 later. Down to the very last, the United States endeavoured to move 

 Great Britain from this attitude. In the draft of the article for the 

 new treaty the United States Commissioners proposed that the lan- 

 guage to be employed should indicate continuity. (United States 

 Case, App., p. 310.) 



It is agreed .... that the inhabitants of the said United 

 States shall continue to enjoy unmolested, &c. 



But the British Commissioners declined to assent, and the lan- 

 guage of the treaty is 



It is agreed .... that the inhabitants of the said United 

 States shall have, &c. 



28 Perusal of the correspondence between Lord Bathurst and 

 Mr. Adams during the negotiations will show : 



(1.) That Mr. Adams urged the continued existence of the liberties 

 of the 1783 treaty, and that Lord Bathurst explicitly refused to con- 

 cur in that view, or to concede anything in deference to it. 



