2250 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



of amendment which the American Commissioners delivered in at the 

 close of the conference, you will remark to them that, even if we were 

 to admit that the privilege and liberty in question ought to be con- 

 sidered as equivalents, the manner in which they have, in that memo- 

 randum, proposed to renew respectively the privilege and liberty here- 

 tofore enjoyed under the treaty of 1783, confounds all principles of 

 reciprocity; for the American Commissioners propose a limited and 

 restricted renewal of our former pivileges, in return for an unlimited 

 and unrestricted renewal of their former liberty. 



As the conditions on which the American Commissioners may be 

 inclined to consent to a renewal of our former privilege, and 

 1360 the conditions on which we may be inclined to renew the liberty 

 the United States enjoyed of taking, drying, and curing, fish 

 on our coasts, may lead into long discussions, which would retard the 

 conclusion of the negotiation, and as it is very desirable that not only 

 the conclusion of the treaty should not be delayed, but also that it 

 should include in it an adjustment of all questions likely otherwise to 

 create misunderstandings, you will propose the two articles contained 

 in the Enclosure (A). By the first of these articles, the boundary is 

 defined as already proposed; by the second, the conditions on which 

 we shall be ready to renew the liberty heretofore given to the United 

 States of taking, drying, and curing fish, and the conditions on which 

 the liberty heretofore enjoyed by us of a free access to and naviga- 

 tion of the Mississippi shall be restored to us, are left for future 

 negotiation. 



After the declaration made by the American Commissioners that 

 they were willing to receive the liberty of taking, drying, and curing, 

 fish on our coasts, as an equivalent to some concession on their part, 

 it cannot be expected that they will refuse this proposition. If the 

 American Commissioners decline these propositions, you will not 

 consider yourselves as authorised to sign the treaty with the omission 

 of the amended pro jet of the 8th article, and still less with the omis- 

 sion of the latter part of it. 



Although the American Commissioners have, in their conferences, 

 admitted the fact that the liberty which the United States heretofore 

 enjoyed of taking, drying, and curing, fish on our coasts, had ceased 

 with the commencement of the war, by making the renewal of that 

 liberty the subject of negotiation, yet it is very desirable that any 

 point so calculated to produce altercation (unless previously under- 

 stood by the two contracting parties) should not be left in the state in 

 which the signing of the treaty, with the omission of the 8th article, 

 would still unavoidably leave it. If, therefore, you shall not be able 

 to bring the point to a satisfactory conclusion, either by acceding to 

 this proposition, or by otherwise making it clear by some written 

 document that they consider the stipulations of 1783. with respect to 

 the liberty given them of taking, drying, and curing, fish on our 

 coasts, as no longer in force, you will refer home for further instruc- 

 tions. 



I am, &c. BATHURST. 



