296 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



No. 9. 1818, April 7: Letter, Mr. Bagot, British Minister at Wash- 

 ington, to Viscount Castlereagh. 



WASHINGTON, April 7, 1818. 



MY LORD, I have the honour to inclose to your Lordship the copy of 

 a letter which I received on the 14th of last month from Rear- Ad- 

 miral Sir David Milne, acquainting me with the orders which it was 

 his intention to give to the cruizers under his command in regard to 

 foreign vessels round fishing during the present season within the 

 jurisdiction of His Majesty's North American territories. 



Some days after the receipt of this letter I took an opportunity 

 of informing Mr. Adams of the instructions which the Admiral was 

 about to issue, expressing, at the same time, my regret that the Ameri- 

 can Government should have dela'yed to make the propositions which 

 I had been so long taught to expect, and which might possibly have 

 led to some arrangement in regard to the vessels of the United States, 

 which would have exempted them from the operation of these orders. 



Mr. Adams assumed an air of some surprise at this communication, 

 and, having repeated several of the reasons which he had formerly 

 assigned for the delay which had occurred, requested to know whether 

 I could not take upon myself to suggest to the Admiral the propriety 

 of again suspending the orders of His Majesty's Government upon 

 this subject. I told him that I certainly could not take upon myself 

 any such responsibility that the orders of His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment were peremptory ; and that their suspension had only been con- 

 tinued through the last summer in compliance with his own particular 

 request to your Lordship, and under an expectation of immediately 

 receiving the propositions which the President had. at that time, 

 expressed a wish to bring under the consideration of His Majesty's 

 Government. 



I have the honour to inclose to your Lordship a copy of the answer 

 which I have returned to Sir David Milne's letter. 



I confess to your Lordship that I am totally at a loss to account 

 for the remarkable delay which has taken place in this business 

 unless indeed the difficulty is to be solved by a supposition that this 

 Government is not in fact desirous of coming to any arrangement 

 whatever upon the subject. I have for several months constantly 

 availed myself of every opportunity of bringing the matter under 

 Mr. Adams' notice, and I have never failed to remind him 

 179 that it was becoming impossible for me to transmit the ex- 

 pected propositions to your Lordship with any hope of receiv- 

 ing your Lordship's decision upon them before the commencement 

 the present fishing season. Mr. Adams has at different times assigned 

 a variety of reasons for this delay. At one time he attributed it to 

 the necessity of procuring further information respecting the coast 

 at another to the numerous engagements of the President during the 

 session of Congress at another to some difference of opinion which 

 he said prevailed upon the subject amongst the persons principally 

 interested in the trade ; and at another to the want of a Report with 

 which your Lordship had promised to furnish him when in England, 

 showing the real injuries and inconveniences which had arisen to 

 His Majesty's settlements from the practices of the American fisher- 

 men. In consequence of the last of these reasons I have furnished 

 him with a copy of the letter of the 28th of May 1816 from the Col- 



