290 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



he had fixed upon the precise distance of 60 miles, should the state- 

 ment on this point be correct. 



I had received a letter from the Rear-Admiral by the last mail 

 acquainting me with the measures which he had adopted for prevent- 

 ing the citizens of the United States from taking and drying fish 

 within His Majesty's jurisdiction, and expressing a desire that I 

 would communicate to him any information which I could furnish 

 relative to the sentiments of His Majesty's Government on this head. 

 I have the honour to inclose a copy of this letter, and of the answer 

 which I have returned, in which I have been careful strictly to con- 

 form to the language of the instructions given to the Commissioners 

 at Ghent, which I have taken for the guidance of my conduct on this 

 subject. 



I have, &c, 



ANTHONY ST. Jxo. BAKER. 



P. S. Since writing the above I have received Mr. Monroe's 

 letter relative to the restoration of the settlement on Columbia River, 

 a copy of which I beg leave to inclose. It is my intention in my 

 reply to refer him to Rear-Admiral Dixon who commands in those 

 seas. 



A. B. 



No. 5. 1816, April 16: Letter, Viscount C asttereagh to Mr. Bagot. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, April 16, 1816. 



SIR, In the despatch No. 3 addressed to you by Earl Bathurst bear- 

 ing date the 20th November, 1815, your particular attention was 

 directed to the discussion brought on by the Government of the 

 United States with that of Great Britain since the restoration of 

 peace by the Treaty of Ghent, on the subject of the fisheries. Copies 

 of the notes which had been exchanged between the American Minis- 

 ter in London and His Majesty's Government, were therein trans- 

 mitted for your information ; and you were directed to conform vour 

 language in your intercourse with the American Secretary of State 

 to the principles which had been brought forward in this correspond- 

 ence on the part of your Court. 



Whilst these discussions were passing in Europe, you will observe 

 from the inclosed documents, that, in pursuance of the construction 

 of that Treaty as contended for by the British Government, the 

 naval officer commanding on the Halifax station had taken measures 

 for amicably removing all American fishing vessels from within the 

 British jurisdiction, warning them under pain of seizure not to be 

 again found either within the harbours or within the maritime limits 

 of the British sovereignty on those coasts. 



You will find in Lord Bathurst 's notes the grounds fully explained 

 upon which the liberty of fishing and drying within our limits, as 

 granted to the citizens of the United States by the Treaty of 1783, 

 was considered to have ceased with the war. and not to have been 

 revived by the late Treaty of Peace. You will also find therein de- 

 tailed the serious considerations affecting not only the prosperity of 

 our own fishery, but the general interests of the British dominions in 

 matters of revenue as well as of Government, which made it incum- 



