DOCUMENTS BEAEING ON TEEATY OF 1183. 191 



are, therefore, not to consent to any treaty of commerce with Great 

 Britain, without an explicit stipulation on her part not to molest or 

 disturb the inhabitants of the United States of America, in taking 

 fish on the banks of Newfoundland, and other fisheries in the Amer- 

 ican seas, anywhere, excepting within the distance of three leagues of 

 the shores of the territories remaining to Great Britain at the close of 

 the war, if a nearer distance can not be obtained by negociation. And 

 in the negociation you are to exert your most strenuous endeavours to 

 obtain a nearer distance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and particularly 

 along the shores of Nova Scotia; as to which latter we are desirous 

 that even the shores may be occasionally used for the purpose of 

 carrying on the fisheries by the inhabitants of these States." 



These instructions are very decisive in favour of our indubitable 

 right to the fisheries; and it is possible that Congress might be of 

 opinion, that commerce would be the strongest inducement to the 

 English to make peace, and at the same time that there was some- 

 thing so naval in the fisheries, that the dread of acknowledging our 

 right to them would be the strongest obstacle in the way of peace. 

 They might think, too, that peace was of more importance to the 

 United States than a British acknowledgement of our right to the 

 fisheries, which, to be sure, would have been enjoyed by our people in 

 a good degree without it. 



Reasonings like these might influence Congress to revoke the com- 

 mission and instructions in question. But whatever probability there 

 might appear in them at that time, experience has since shown that 

 they were not well founded. On the contrary, arguments have been 

 found to convince the British ministers themselves, that it was the 

 interest of their King and. country, not only to acknowledge the 

 American right to the fisheries, but to encourage the unrestrained 

 exercise of it. These considerations, therefore, can be no longer of 

 any weight against a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, or 

 against accrediting a minister to the court of St. James. 



No. 124. 1783, February 10: Letter, Mr. Strachey to Mr. Fitzherbert. 



WHITEHALL, 10th Feb. 1783. 



DEAR SIR: You will hardly be able to suggest to yourself a reason 

 for my long silence since the receipt of your very kind letter of the 

 19th December. The truth is, I wished to have something worth 

 communicating, and I hoped to see that letter of Mr. - - which 

 you say is strictly my property, and upon which you conclude I shall 

 make reflexions But, from the time I wrote last, I have known little 

 of the sentiments of our Great Men without the Walls of my Office 

 Indeed I have never had a material Word from Lord Shelburne, 

 since the Day of my Return from Paris, except about a week after- 

 wards, at the King's Levee, when he took occasion to say that he had 

 considered again the Fishery Article, and was convinced that it was 

 perfectly right, and that in all other respects we had given him 

 the most distinct and explicit satisfaction. With regard to the Letter 

 you allude to, as my property, I have never seen it There may also 

 be other Letters from the same Person, addressed to me, but I have 



