1072 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



The 8th article was among those articles proposed, and was the 

 article concerning the Mississippi and the fisheries. 



This note shows that the British Plenipotentiaries expressed a 

 willingness, which the American Plenipotentiaries had already ex- 

 pressed, of omitting altogether the 8th article, which referred to the 

 subject of the fisheries. 



The negotiations on this subject were accordingly at an end, and 

 no reference was made in the treaty subsequently signed to the right 

 of British subjects to navigate the Mississippi or to the right of the 

 people of the United States in the fisheries, as appears, of course, by 

 the treaty itself, which is among the documents here submitted. The 

 treaty was signed on the 24th December, 1814. 



In the report of the American Plenipotentiaries to the Secretary 

 of State, under date the 25th December, 1814, which will be found on 

 p. 256 of the Appendix to the United States Case, the reasons were 

 set forth at length for their refusal to agree to any article referring 

 to future negotiations, the access to and navigation of the Mississippi, 

 and the right of the people of the United States to fish within the 

 exclusive British jurisdiction. 



In this same report the Commissioners for the United States re- 

 ported the grounds upon which they had declined to bring into the 

 discussion the right of the inhabitants of the United States to the 

 fisheries quoting from their report " within the exclusive British 

 jurisdiction." 



I respectfully refer the Tribunal to this report, which I have 

 already cited, and only care now to refer to the fact that the discus- 

 sion concerned alone the liberty of the inhabitants of the United 

 States to fish " within the exclusive British jurisdiction." 



I shall now take up, before passing to the consideration of the nego- 

 tiations leading to the treaty of 1818, certain arguments advanced 

 by counsel in opening this submission in behalf of Great Britain, 

 drawn from data in the Appendix to the British Case largely, and 

 in some instances from data included in the Appendix to the Case 

 of the United States. 



On p. 29 of the report of Sir Robert Finlay's Argument he stated : 



" If the Court will turn to p. 125 of the United States Argument, 

 there will be found a very sweeping statement which, if supported, 

 would go some way to help the case made. The passage begins at 

 the top of page 125, and it runs down to near the foot of the page : 



" ' Before the consideration of the negotiations in 1818 to compose 

 the ' differences ' between the two nations, it is important to review 

 the diplomatic history of the two powers, which is material to this 

 Question, between the termination of the War for Independence in 

 1783, and the commencement of negotiations leading to the treaty of 

 1818, for the purpose of ascertaining how precise an understanding 

 had actually been reached as to the limits of ' the exclusive British 

 jurisdiction,' or ' the limits of the British sovereignty,' over the waters 



