231 Tin: tkkatv oi- Washington. 



of tlie entrance of Lays or indents of tlie const," a;ad 

 that, consnjiK'nlly, American iislicrnien liad no riglit 

 to enter bays, there to take fish, although tlie fishing 

 might be at a greater distance than three miles from 

 the sliure of the bay. 



This (»])inion,be it observed, maki'S no distinction 

 between close bays and ojien ones, lavge indents of 

 the coast and small ones, and, if carried into elVect by 

 the l)iitisli Government. Mould exclude citizens of the 

 United States from a large jiart of the produetfve fish- 

 inggrounds on the coast of Uritish America, 



Xo\v, strange to say, this opinion of the Law OAicer;* 

 of tlie Crown is based on a mere blunder of theirs, 

 or, to say the least, on a iietion, or a bald interi)olation. 



After stating their conclusion, they assign, as the 

 sole reason of it : 



*' Ah [llint is, bccaitsc] we nro of oitinioii that llic tcnii ' lu'.'ul- 

 laiid ' is iisoil ill llie trcUy to I'xpiVhs llio pari of tlio luiul 

 wo liavc licforo incnlionetl, including ti)e interior of llic bays 

 and the indents of the coasts." 



It is not true that "tlie term 'headland' is used in 

 tlie treaty to express the i)art of the land we have 

 ])i'fore mentioned.'' 



Neither the term "headhnnd" nor any word of simi- 

 lar signification is to be found in the treaty. Tlic 

 Law Gflicers of the Crown undertook to construe the 

 treaty without reading it, and by this presumptuous 

 carelessness caused the British Crovernment to initi- 

 ate a series of measures of a semi-hostile character, 

 which came veiy near producing another war be- 

 tween Great Britain and the United States. 



