DOCUMENTS BEARING ON THE TBEATY OF GHENT, 1814. 273 



I would further observe, that if the principle was assumed by 

 the minority in the spirit of compromise, that spirit was much more 

 strongly manifested by the majority, and particularly by me, in 

 accepting this substitute, instead of the article proposed by Mr. Gal- 

 latin. I shall assuredly never deny, that from the time when the 

 British plenipotentiaries notified to us, that their government did 

 not intend to grant the fishing liberties without an equivalent, I felt 

 an inexpressible solicitude for their preservation. I have already 

 remarked that this notification was made in terms so indefinite, that 

 its object apparently was to exclude us from the whole of the New- 

 foundland, Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Labrador fisheries. Mr. Rus- 

 sell has not ventured to contest this position; nor could he have 

 contested it with success. The notification, as entered upon the 

 protocol of conference of 8th August, 1814, made up jointly by 

 both parties, was as follows: 



The British commissioners requested information, whether the American com- 

 missioners were instructed to enter into negotiation on the above points? But 

 before they desired any answer, they felt it right to communicate the intentions 

 of their government as to the North American fisheries viz. That the British 

 government did not intend to grant to the United States, gratuitously, the 

 priviliges formerly granted by treaty to them, of fishing within the limits of 

 the British sovereignty, and of using the shores of the British territories for 

 purposes connected with the fisheries. (Waifs State Papers, vol. 9, p. 830.) 



The remark upon it, made by the American mission, in their letter 

 to the Secretary of State of 12th August, 1814, was this : 



The extent of what was considered by them as waters peculiarly British, was 

 not stated. From the manner in which they brought this subject into 

 164 view, they seemed to wish us to understand, that they were not anxious 

 that it should be discussed, and that they only intended to give us notice, 

 that these privileges had ceased to exist, and would not be again granted with- 

 out an equivalent, nor unless we thought proper to provide expressly in the 

 treaty of peace for their renewal. (Ibid. p. 821.) 



And what were the limits of British sovereignty, as to the North 

 American fisheries? Ask the Abbe Raynal. 



According to natural right, the fishery upon the great bank ovght to have been 

 common to all mankind ; notwithstanding which, the two powers that had 

 formed colonies in North America, have made very little difficulty of appropri- 

 ating it to themselves. Spain, who alone could have any claim to it, and who, 

 from the number of her monks, might have pleaded the necessity of asserting 

 it, entirely gave up the matter at the last peace, since which time the English 

 and French are the only nations that frequent these latitudes. (RaynaVs 

 History, book 17.) 



Ask the commentator on the marine ordinance of Louis XIV, 

 Valin. After assigning soundings, as the extent of sovereign juris- 

 diction, upon the sea, in regard to fisheries, he says: 



As to the right of fishing upon the Bank of Newfoundland, as that island, 

 which is. as it were, the seat of this fishery, then belonged to France, it was 

 so held by the French, that other nations could naturally fish there only by 

 virtue of the treaties. This has since changed, by means of the cession of the 

 Island of Newfoundland, made to the English, by the treaty of Utrecht; but 

 Louis XIV, at the time of that cession, made an express reservation of the 

 right of fishing upon the Bank of Newfoundland, in favour of the French, as 

 before. (Valin, vol. 2, p. 693.) 



And Mr. Jefferson, in his Report on the Fisheries, of 1st February, 

 1791, had said : 



Spain had formerly relinquished her pretensions to a participation in these 

 fisheries, at the close of the preceding war : and at the end of this, the adjacent 



