12 CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



those of the continent as those of the islands situated in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence " and outside of said Gulf " but at the distance of fifteen 

 leagues from the coasts of the Island of Cape Breton." By reference 

 to Article V of the Treaty of Paris (1763) between Great Britain and 

 France," it will be seen that this suggestion with respect to the three 

 leagues and fifteen leagues limit of exclusion was based upon a simi- 

 lar limitation established by that treaty upon the French fishing 

 rights. 



The American Commissioners refused to consider any such limita- 

 tions and the suggestion was abandoned by Great Britain for the 

 reason, as stated by Mr. Eichard Oswald, commissioner on the part of 

 Great Britain in his letter of November 30, 1782, reporting the con- 

 clusion of the negotiations to his Government, that — 



If we had not given way in the article of the fishery, we should 

 have had no treaty at all, Mr. Adams having declared that he would 

 never put his hand to any treaty, if the restraints regarding the three 

 leagues and fifteen leagues were not dispensed with, as well as deny- 

 ing his countrymen the privilege of drying fish on the unsettled parts 

 of Nova Scotia.'^ 



The agreement finally arrived at appears in the treaty as Article 

 III and is as follows : 



It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue 

 to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand 

 Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland ; also in the Gulph 

 of Saint Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea where the in- 

 habitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And 

 also that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to 

 take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland 

 as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on 

 that island) and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of 

 His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America ; and that the Ameri- 

 can fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the 

 unsettled bays, harbours and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen 

 Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; 

 but so soon as the same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not 

 be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlements, 

 Avithout a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, 

 proprietors or possessors of the ground.'' 



The first clause of this article relating to the off-shore fisheries is in 

 almost the identical lang-uage of the two proposals originally agreed 

 upon by the British Commissioner, except that here all reference to 

 the British rights in these fisheries is omitted. The American rights 



"Appendix, p. 52. ^Appendix, p. 234. '^ Appendix, p. 24. 



