AKGUMENT OF JOHN S. EWAET.- 1379 



drying their fish on the shores of Nova Scotia, and lastly by having 

 the article so worded as that the fishery on the Great Bank should be 

 stipulated for, not as a matter of right, but as a matter of grace and 

 favour; but upon all these articles the Commissioners in general and 

 particularly the eldest of them, Mr. Adams (who your Lordship 

 knows is from New England) were absolutely inflexible." 



I think that the point is sufficiently well established. And, there- 

 fore, it is quite clear that this passage that I have read from Mr. 

 Adams, on p. 318 of the United States Case Appendix, is quite errone- 

 ous. He had absolutely forgotten what had taken place. I may say 

 as to that, however, that it is no wonder. In Mr. Adams previous 

 letter of 1815 he had described himself as without memory and with- 

 out eyes. He was writing, now, seven years afterwards, and it is no 

 discredit to such a great man as he was that after having spent so 

 many years in violent struggle, his memory should at last have failed 

 him. 



If I were asked why, then, were the fisheries conceded, if the 

 United States had no claim to them at all ? there are three very satis- 

 factory answers: The first, and one of the most important, at all 

 events, was connected with the trade of the United States. Until 

 1776, the trade of the colonies had been engrossed by Great Britain. 

 The Declaration of Independence set that trade at large; and evi- 

 dently there was going to be great competition for it among the Euro- 

 pean nations, who now were to have an opportunity of participating 

 in it. It was probable that the estrangement which had arisen be- 

 tween Great Britain and the United States, by reason of the war, 

 would militate against the chances of Great Britain, and be of great 

 service to the European nations in the struggle for this commerce. 

 It was a matter of great object with the British Government that 

 they should, so far as possible, effect a reconciliation not merely a 

 peace, but a reconciliation ; and throughout the history of the negotia- 

 tions, the members of the Tribunal will find that that point was fre- 

 quently put by Mr. Franklin to Mr. Oswald, and that a great impres- 

 sion was made upon Mr. Oswald, and through him upon the British 

 Government in that regard. That was, then, one great motive actu- 

 ating the treaty, namely the placating of colonial feeling. 



Another great object was that the United States might be detached 

 from the European alliance with France, Spain, and Holland 

 and that, by separating the United States from these others, Great 

 Britain would be in a better position to deal with her European 

 enemies. 



And the third reason was the great political difficulties that Lord 

 Shelburne found himself in. He and Fox I need not go into that 

 very particularly had always differed as to the line of policy to be 

 adopted in the negotiations. While members of the same Eockingham 



