1058 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHEBIES ARBITRATION. 



instances by most maritime Powers and especially by ourselves and 

 the Spaniards we meet with few instances of a recognition of such 

 claims in treaties, probably owing to the unreasonable extent to which 

 the respective honour of nations has been pledged to support them. 

 The acquiescence in the right of fisheries at a considerable distance 

 from the coast, sometimes at twenty leagues, and the submission to 

 revenue laws, such as our hovering Acts, &c., might indeed be argued 

 with some plausibility as a proof of the exception allowed by nations 

 to the general limitation of maritime jurisdiction. 



" By our treaty of peace and commerce with Tripoli, concluded 

 19th of September 1751, it is stipulated that the vessels of Tripoli 

 shall not cruise or look for prizes within sight of the island of 

 Minorca or city of Gibraltar; and the same stipulation is introduced 

 into our treaty with Tunis, of the 19th of October 1751, with this 

 addition, that any prize taken by the ships of Tunis within ten miles 

 of the aforesaid places shall be restored without any contradiction; 

 and Spain in her treaty with Tripoli, of 1784, stipulated that the 

 Tripoline corsairs should not capture vessels within ten leagues of 

 her coast. 



" If your Lordship should deem it expedient on other grounds to 

 concede any extension of jurisdiction to the United States beyond 

 that which their independence necessarily implies, the American com- 

 missioners have more than once assured us that they are ready in the 

 article itself to acknowledge it as an exception to the general rule 

 arising from the particular circumstances of their situation and 

 peculiar nature of their coast. We shall also observe that their 

 utmost expectation after our conversations on the subject, is two 

 marine leagues. 



" The disadvantages of such a stipulation to us would be the ad- 

 ditional protection of a league to our enemies and to our deserters 

 in the American service, and a fear has also been expressed by a very 

 intelligent sea officer, that the difficulty of ascertaining the distance 

 would add to the frequency of the disputes. But without dwelling 

 on the uncertainty of the criterion at present resorted to for ascertain- 

 ing the distance, viz the depth of the water,' a reference to the cases 

 which have occurred during this and the late war would amply prove 

 that as far as the practice of our cruisers is concerned, the present 

 limits of jurisdiction are no security against mistake or at least 

 against litigation." 



Then they add, in the last paragraph and this is most im- 

 portant : 



" We might on the other hand derive some little advantage from 

 the claim it would justify of an extended jurisdiction and consequent 

 protection of revenue and commerce on the coasts of our colonial 

 possessions. But the chief benefit we could expect to derive from it 

 is the conviction in the American public of our conciliatory disposi- 

 tion towards them, an object which the language and conduct of Mr. 

 Monroe and Mr. Pinkney have persuaded us that they and the Amer- 

 ican Government have as much at heart as any of those which were 

 the immediate causes of their mission. They are anxious to remove 

 the causes which led to the misunderstanding between the two 

 countries, but it is obvious that they are more anxious to prevent the 



