24 CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Meanwhile, however, Mr. Adams, the American Minister at Lon- 

 don, had taken up the question with the British Foreign Office, and 

 in his letter of September 19, 1815, to Mr. Monroe he reports an 

 interview with Lord Bathurst, then Under Secretary of State for 

 Colonial and War Departments, in which Lord Bathurst stated, as 

 the substance of an answer already sent to the British Charge at 

 AVashington, that — 



it had been that as, on the one hand, Great Britain could not permit 

 the vessels of the United States to fish within the creeks and close 

 upon the shores of the British territories, so, on the other hand, it 

 was by no means her intention to interrupt them in fishing anywhere 

 in the open sea, or without the territorial jurisdiction, a marine 

 league from the shore; and, therefore, that the warning given at the 

 place stated, in the case referred to, was altogether unauthorized.* 



The question of where the line of demarcation should be drawn 

 between the inshore and the off-shore fisheries had not as yet been 

 raised in the discussion, the American contention for the right to use 

 all the fisheries making it unnecessary, but as this demarcation later 

 became a question of importance in the interpretation of the true 

 meaning of the word " bays " as used in the treaty of 1818, it is 

 desirable, in anticipation of that question, that attention be directed, 

 in reviewing this controversy, to several significant indications of 

 the views on that subject which were held at this time by the two 

 Governments. It should be noted, therefore, that in the extract 

 above quoted from the report by Mr. Adams of his interview with 

 Lord Bathurst, the inshore fisheries are referred to as " close upon the 

 shores of the British territories," and the off-shore fisheries are re- 

 ferred to as " without the territorial jurisdiction, a marine league 

 from the shore." It should also be noted that later in the same 

 despatch Mr. Adams reiterates and emphasizes Lord Bathurst's 

 statement of the British position as follows : 



The answer which was so promptly sent to the complaint relative 

 to the warning of the fishing vessels by the captain of the Jaseur^ 

 will probably be communicated to you before you will receive this 

 letter. You will see whether it is so precise, as to tlie limits within 

 which they are determined to adhere to the exclusion of our fishing 

 vessels, as Lord Bathurst's verbal statement of it to me, namely, to 

 the extent of one marine league from their shores. Indeed, it is to 

 the curing and drying upon the shore that they appear to have the 

 strongest objection.^ 



•^Appendix, p. 2G53. ^Appendix, p. 2GS. 



