DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 291 



bent upon His Majesty's Government to oppose the renewal of so 

 extensive and injurious a concession within the British sovereignty 

 to a foreign State, founded upon no principle of reciprocity or ade- 

 quate compensation whatever. 



That this determination however was not taken in any unkind feel- 

 ing towards America, or from any illiberal wish to deprive her sub- 

 jects of adequate means of engaging in the fishery, will appear from 

 the uniform avowal which that correspondence contains of the readi- 

 ness of the British Government to enter into negotiation with the 

 Government of the United States, with a view of combining a suitable 

 accommodation for their fishery with those regulations which the 

 British Government felt it necessary to adopt for the internal ad- 

 ministration and prosperity of the King's dominions, and in order to 

 afford a more convincing proof of their desire to avoid every unpleas- 

 ant collision with the American States, and under an impression that 

 many of their subjects, possibly in ignorance of the discontinuance 

 of these privileges, might have embarked in the fishery for that par- 

 ticular year at a considerable expense, orders were sent out in the 

 month of June to His Majesty's naval officers, not to obstruct, for the 

 remainder of the season, American vessels from enjoying the accus- 

 tomed accommodation, but to confine themselves to rendering the 

 notice general against their return another year. 



You will see by Mr. Adams's note of January 22nd, that having 

 referred to his Government for further instructions, he is directed to 

 adhere to the pretentions as before brought forward on the 

 176 part of the United States, but to declare at the same time, the 

 disposition of the American Government to reconcile, if pos- 

 sible, by amicable negotiation the practical views which the respective 

 Governments have it in contemplation to effectuate in the arrange- 

 ment of this question. 



In the spirit of this principle, instead of prolonging the contro- 

 versy which might easily be done, in refutation of Mr. Adams' reason- 

 ing, it has rather been the endeavour of His Majesty's Ministers to 

 frame some satisfactory arrangement which they might at once offer 

 to the American Government as a pledge of good-will, and as the 

 means of reconciling their respective views. Some delay has neces- 

 sarily occurred, partly from the press of Parliamentary business, and 

 partly from the absence of Sir R. Keats, whose judgment upon this 

 subject, as well from his eminent abilities, as from his experience as 

 Governor of Newfoundland, on this particular question, it was their 

 duty to carry along with them. Having, after consultation with that 

 officer, framed a proposition which they persuade themselves from its 

 liberality cannot fail to reconcile all differences, I was authorized to 

 open the proposition to Mr. Adams, provided he felt himself fur- 

 nished with the necessary powers to conclude an agreement upon this 

 subject, and I accordingly had an interview with that gentleman: 

 but finding that he had neither precise instructions, nor powers to 

 conclude, it has been deemed expedient to transfer the negotiation 

 to America, and you will receive herewith the necessary full powers, 

 authorizing you to sign with the American Secretary of State an 

 agreement on this point, and to issue provisional instructions to His 

 Majesty's officers civil and military in conformity thereto, in order 

 that every possible inconvenience and collision may be avoided, and 



