APPENDICES TO ORAL ARGUMENTS. 2251 



Lord Bathurst to the Commissioners at Ghent. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, December 19, 1814. 



MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN : I had this morning the honor of receiv- 

 ing your despatch of the 14th, .enclosing the note presented on that 

 day by the Commissioners of the United States, and desiring instruc- 

 tions thereupon. 



With regard to the alteration proposed in the 1st article, whereby 

 the occupation of the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay may be reserved 

 to us, there is no objection to the proposition contained in the Ameri- 

 can note, except so far as relates to the surrender of such islands to 

 the United States, if no decision shall have been agreed upon, within 

 a given number of years. This stipulation might give to the United 

 States an interest to postpone any discussion on the subject. There 

 would be no objection to a stipulation by which it should be provided 

 that the right to the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay should be that 

 point of reference on which the Commissioners should be required 

 first to consider and decide. 



With respect to the discussion which has grown out of the latter 

 part of the 8th article, the Prince Kegent regrets to find that there 

 does not appear any prospect of being able to arrive at such an 

 arrangement with regard to the fisheries as would have the effect of 

 coming to a full and satisfactory explanation on that subject. 



As this appears, however, now to be the only remaining point on 

 which any difficulty exists, he is unwilling to protract by a prolonga- 

 tion of the discussion, the period when the war between His Majesty 

 and the United States may be happily terminated. You will there- 

 fore present a note, in which, after referring to the language held 

 by you on this subject from the very commencement of the negotia- 

 tion, in which you stated explicitly that the British Commissioners 

 did not intend to grant gratuitously to the United States the privi- 

 leges formerly by treaty to them of fishing within the limits of the 

 British sovereignty, and of using the shores of the British territories 

 for purposes connected with fisheries, you will state that, as there 

 does not appear any prospect of agreeing upon an article wherein 

 that question may be satisfactorily adjusted, you are authorised to 

 accept the proposition which the Commissioners of the United States 

 proposed in the protocol of the 1st December, wherein they expressed 

 their readiness to omit the 8th article altogether. 



It will not be necessary for you to insist on the article entitled, 

 "An Article relative to the Right of Prosecuting Suits in the Courts 

 of Justice," as we rely upon the Courts of Justice being open in the 

 United States, by which the just claims of British subjects may be 

 fairly prosecuted. 



I am, &c. BATHURST. 



1361 NOTES FROM LETTERS AND DESPATCHES OF LORD CASTLEREAGH, 



VOL. Ill, 3RD EDITION. 



The Hon. Charles Bagot to Lord Castlereagh. 



WASHINGTON, August 11, 1816. 



MY DEAR LORD, I am much disappointed in not being able to ac- 

 quaint you by this packet that I have already concluded the conven- 

 tion on the subject of the fisheries but the fault is in the Govern- 



