276 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



at London was instructed to remonstrate against the interruption of 

 the fishermen, and to maintain the rights of the nation. A corre- 

 spondence with the British government ensued, in which the ques- 

 tion as to the abrogation of the treaty of 1783 was thoroughly dis- 

 cussed. The orders to the British cruisers were partly disavowed, 

 and partly countermanded. The negotiation was continued until 

 that of the convention of 1818 commenced, and merged in it. The 

 British government never formally renounced their and Mr. Rus- 

 sell's doctrine, that the war of 1812 had abrogated the treaty of 

 1783. As little did the government of the United States renounce 

 the doctrine, that all their rights and liberties, recognized by the 

 treaty of 1783, were in full force as if the war of 1812 had never 

 occurred. The conflict of opinion was adjusted by a new article, as 

 little liable to be abrogated by a future war, as the treaty of Inde- 

 pendence. By this article, we have expressly renounced a small 

 portion of the liberties within the exclusive and limited territorial 

 jurisdiction of part of the British provinces, and have received in 

 equivalent an enlargement of those liberties on the coast and shores 

 of Newfoundland. The substance of the contest has been conceded 

 to us ; arid each party has adhered to its doctrine. 



******* 



[Pursuing the general argument Mr. Adams said :] 

 The nature of the rights and liberties, consisted in the free par- 

 ticipation in a fishery. That fishery covering the bottom of the 

 banks which surround the Island of Newfoundland, the coasts of 

 New-England, Nova Scotia, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Labrador, 

 furnishes the richest treasure and the most beneficent tribute that 

 ocean pays to earth on this terraqueous globe By the pleasure of 

 the Creator of earth and seas, it had been constituted in its physical 

 nature one fishery, extending in the open seas around that island, to 

 little less than five degrees of latitude from the coast, spreading 

 along the whole northern coast of this continent, and insinuating 

 itself into all the bays, creeks, and harbours to the very borders of 

 the shores. For the full enjoyment of an equal share in this fishery, 

 it was necessary to have a nearly general access to every part of it. 

 The habits of the game which it pursues being so far migratory that 

 they were found at different periods most abundant in different 

 places, sometimes populating the banks and at others swarming close 

 upon the shores. The latter portion of the fishery had, however, 

 always been considered as the most valuable, inasmuch as it afforded 

 the means of drying and curing the fish immediately after they 

 were caught, which could not be effected upon the banks. 



By the law of nature this fishery belonged to the inhabitants of 

 the regions in the neighbourhood of which it was situated. By the 

 conventional law Europe, it belonged to the European nations which 

 had formed settlements in those regions. France, as the first prin- 

 cipal settler in them, had long claimed the exclusive right to it. 

 Great Britain, moved in no small degree by the value of the fishery 

 itself, had made the conquest of all those regions upon France, and 

 had limited by treaty, within a narrow compass, the right of France 

 to any share in the fishery. Spain, upon some claim of prior dis- 

 covery had for some time enjoyed a share of the fishery on the banks; 



