246 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



territories for purposes connected with the fisheries, were what 

 149 Great Britain did not intend to grant without equivalent, are 



not desirous of introducing any article upon the subject. ^ 

 With a view of removing what they consider as the only objection 

 to the immediate conclusion of the treaty, the under-signed agree to 

 adopt the proposal made by the American plenipotentiaries at the 

 conference of the 1st instant, and repeated ia their last note, of 

 omitting the 8th article altogether. 



No. 25. 181 h December %2: Extract from Kir. J. Q. Adams' Memoirs. 

 ******* 



After returning home I walked around the Coupure, and, as I 

 was coming back, met in the street Mr. Bayard, who told me that 

 the answer from the British Plenipotentiaries to our last note had 

 been received; that it accepted our proposal to say nothing in the 

 treaty about the fisheries or the navigation of the Mississippi, and, 

 indeed, placed the remaining points of controversy at our own dis- 

 posal. As soon as I came into my chamber, Mr. Gallatin brought 

 me the note. It agrees to be silent upon the navigation of the Mis- 

 sissippi and the fisheries, and to strike out the whole of the eighth 

 article, marking the boundary-line from the Lake of the Woods west- 

 ward. They also refer again to their declaration of the 8th of August, 

 that Great Britain would not hereafter grant the liberty of fishing, 

 and drying and curing fish, within the exclusive British jurisdiction, 

 without an equivalent. They accepted our proposed paragraph re- 

 specting the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, with the exception of 

 a clause for their restitution if the contested title to them should not 

 be settled within a limited time. Instead of which, they gave a 

 declaration that no unnecessary delay of the settlement should be 

 interposed by Great Britain. 



Mr. Gallatin asked me whether I thought, as they had referred 

 to their declaration of 8th August concerning the fisheries, it would 

 be necessary to write a note referring again to our construction of 

 the Treaty of 1783, and to our right to the fisheries under it. I said 

 that as we had twice stated it, and in terms peculiarly strong in our 

 last note, I did not think any further written declaration upon the 

 subject necessary. Mr. Gallatin asked me to write immediately a 

 note to Mr. Boyd, requesting him to be himself, and to direct "the 

 captain of the Transit to be, ready to start at a moment's notice, 

 which I did. 



Mr. Clay soon after came into my chamber, and, on reading the 

 British note, manifested some chagrin. He still talked of breaking 

 off the negotiation, but he did not exactly disclose the motive of his 

 ill-humor, which was, however, easily seen through. He would have 

 much preferred the proposed 8th article, with the proposed British 

 paragraph, formally admitting that the British right to navigate 

 the Mississippi, and the American right to the fisheries within 

 British jurisdiction, were both abrogated by the war. I think his 

 conversation with Lord Gambier on the subject last week, at their 

 dinner, the day before we sent our note, had the tendency to induce 



