NEGOTIATIONS FOR A NEW TREATY. 33 



subjects engaged in fishing on the high seas, for the purpose of con- 

 veying fresh fish to market, yet they do feel that the enjoyment of 

 the liberties, formerly used by the inhabitants of the United States, 

 may be very conducive to their national and individual prosperity, 

 though they should be placed under some modifications; and this 

 feeling operates most forcibly in favor of concession. But Great 

 Britain can only oifer the concession in a way which shall effectually 

 protect her own subjects from such obstructions to their lawful enter- 

 prises as they too frequenth^ experienced immediately previous to 

 the late war, and which are, from their very nature, calculated to 

 produce collision and disunion between the two states. 



It was not of fair competition that His Majesty's Government had 

 reason to complain, but of the preoccupation of British harbors and 

 creeks, in North America, b}^ the fishing vessels of the United States, 

 and the forcible exclusion of British vessels from places where the 

 fishery might be most advantageously conducted. They had, like- 

 wise, reason to complain of the clandestine introduction of prohib- 

 ited goods into the British colonies by American vessels ostensibly 

 engaged in the fishing trade, to the great injur}' of the British 

 revenue. 



The undersigned has felt it incumbent *on him thus generally to 

 notice these obstructions, in the hope that the attention of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States will be directed to the subject; and 

 that they may be induced, amicably and cordiall3% to co-operate with 

 His Majesty's Government in devising such regulations as shall pre- 

 vent the recurrence of similar inconveniences. 



His Majesty's Government are willing to enter into negotiations 

 with the Government of the United States for the modified renewal 

 of the liberties in question ; and they doubt not that an arrangement 

 may be made satisfactory to both countries, and tending to confirm 

 the amity now so happily subsisting between them." 



It appears, therefore, that although Great Britain was unwilling 

 to admit " the claim of the United States to enjoy those liberties with 

 respect to the fisheries, as matter of right," yet that Government was 

 "willing as a matter of policy to enter into a new arrangement for 

 a " modified renewal of the liberties in question." It further appears 

 that the modification required did not relate to " fair competition " 

 by American fishermen, but to their " preoccupation of British har- 

 bors and creeks " and to " the forcible exclusion of British vessels 

 from places where the fishery might be most advantageously con- 

 ducted " and likewise to " the clandestine introduction of prohibited 

 goods into the British colonies by American vessels ostensibly en- 

 gaged in the fishing trade," which were assigned as the grounds of 

 objection to the methods of the American fishermen. 



Further light is thrown on the British views on this subject by 

 Mr. Adams in his despatch of September 19, 1815, to the Secretary of 



"Appendix, p. 277. 



