ARTICLE I OF TREATY OF 1818. 59 



the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Labrador and of the south- 

 ern coast of Newfoundland, as above described; with the proviso 

 respecting such of the said bays, harbors, and creeks as may be 

 settled. 



The liberty of takin^: fish within rivers is not asked. A positive 

 clause to except them is unnecessary, unless it be intended to com- 

 prehend under that name waters which mi^ht otherwise be considered 

 as bays or creeks. Whatever extent of fishing-ground may be secured 

 to American fishermen, the American plenipotentiaries are not pre- 

 pared to accept it on a tenure or on conditions different from those 

 on which the whole has heretofore been held. Their instructions did 

 not anticipate that any new terms or restrictions would be annexed, 

 as none were suggested in the proposals made by Mr. Bagot to the 

 American Government. The clauses forbidding the spreading of 

 nets, and making vessels liable to confiscation in case any articles not 

 wanted for carrying on the fishery should be found on board, are of 

 that description, and would expose the fishermen to endless vexations." 



The revised draft brought forward by the British Plenipotentiaries 

 after the article as previously proposed by them had been rejected 

 by the American Plenipotentiaries was in the form finally agreed 

 upon with some slight typographical changes, and became Article I 

 of the treaty. 



ARTICLE I OF THE TREATY OP 1818. 



It will be observed that the general scope and purpose of Article I 

 of this treaty is indicated by the introductory clause, which is in the 

 exact form proposed by the American Plenipotentiaries in their first 

 draft and recites: 



Wliereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty claimed by 

 the United States for the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry and cure 

 fish on certain coasts, bays, harbors and creeks of His Britannic 

 Majesty's dominions in America, it is agreed, etc.^ 



The recitals of this clause appropriately set forth, by way of explana- 

 tion of what follows, the situation out of which the article grew^ and 

 upon which it was predicated. 



As has already been shown in the review of the course of events 

 and negotiations leading up to this treaty, the only fishing liberties 

 claimed by the United States which were disputed by Great Britain, 

 and, therefore, the only ones with respect to which differences had 



* Appendix, p. 313. ^Appendix, p. 25. 



