978 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



at that time, of no concern, of no value whatever to the American 

 fishermen, the American cod fishermen, and have never been and 

 are not to-day. It is not worth talking about the advan- 

 587 tage of going into the coasts on the western coast of New- 

 foundland, for the American fishermen. They go in to such a 

 trifling extent, without any express stipulation in the treaty, that 

 there is ample provision for it. Nobody would have objected to their 

 going in. No objection would have been made, and none is made, 

 or ever has been made. 



That, then, was the proposition made by Mr. Bagot to Mr. Mon- 

 roe, at p. 79 of the British Appendix. A reply then came, dated the 

 7th January, 1817, to be found at the same p. 79, from Mr. Monroe 

 to Mr. Bagot : 



"Having stated, in my letter of the 30th of December, that, ac- 

 cording to the best information which I had been able to obtain, 

 neither of those coasts had been much frequented by our fishermen, 

 or was likely to be so in future, I am led to believe that they would 

 not, when taken conjointly, as proposed in your last letter, afford the 

 accommodation which is so important to them, and which it is very 

 satisfactory to find it is the desire of your Government that they 

 should possess. From the disposition manifested by your Govern- 

 ment, which corresponds with that of the United States, a strong 

 hope is entertained that further enquiry into the subject will enable 

 His Royal Highness the Prince Regent to ascertain that an arrange- 

 ment, on a scale more accommodating to the expectation of the 

 United States, will not be inconsistent with the interest of Great 

 Britain." 



It appeared, then, that the negotiations were, as it were, dropped 

 for a time, in the hope that they might be resumed later on. The 

 parties did not seem to have come near enough together to make an 

 agreement. 



Then, the next stage in the negotiations appears to be on the 28th 

 July, 1818, as shown by an extract from a letter from Mr. Adams, 

 United States Secretary of State, to Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, to 

 be found on p. 83 of the British Case Appendix. These are instruc- 

 tions given by the United States to Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, to 

 resume the negotiations which had been begun by the letters and cor- 

 respondence that I have read. It appears that the Ministers must 

 have come together, and that there was an endeavour to resume the 

 negotiations; and accordingly Messrs. Gallatin and Rush were au- 

 thorised to meet the Plenipotentiaries on the British side, and re- 

 sume the negotiations. And at p. 84, nearly at the foot of the page, 

 is the important, the very important statement, contained in the 

 instructions to these gentlemen with regard to their negotiations: 



"The president authorises you to agree to an article whereby the 

 United States will desist from the liberty of fishing, and curing and 



