[DUPLICATE.] ^3 



the origin and ioimorfality of the latter, but we offered to concede 

 (145) mucJc more than we could hope to gain i^"^^) by the arrangement. 



From the year 1783, to the commencement of the present war, 

 the actual advantages derived from the lishing privilej^e by the 

 people of the United States, were, according to the best informa- 

 tion that (1-t^) we could obtain on the subject, very inconsiderable 

 and annually experiencing a voluntary diminution. 



It was discovered that the obscurity and humidity of the atmos- 

 phere, owinj; to almost incessant fogs in the high northern latitudes, 

 where this privilege was chietly located, prevented the effectual 

 curing of tish in those regions, and, consequently, lessened very 

 much the value of the (14S) privilege of taking them there. By far 

 the greatest part of the fish taken by our tishermen before the 

 present war, WiiS CH9) taken in the open sea, or (13o)on our own 

 coasts, and cured on ^131) our shores. This branch of the fisheries 

 has been found to be inexhaustible, and has been pursued with so 

 much m.tre certainty and despatch than the privileged portion 

 (152) wiihia British jurisdiction, that it has not only been generally 

 preferred by our fishermen, but would, probably, on longer expe- 

 rience, have been almost universally used by them. It was to be 

 believed, therefore, that a discontinuance of the privilege of taking 

 and curing tish within the British jurisdiction, would not, at all, 

 dimini^h the aggregate quantity taken by the people of the United 

 States, or (153) vaiy materially the details of the business. That pait 

 of the fisheries which would (154) still belong to us as a nation, being 

 exhaustless, would afford an ample field for all the capital and in- 

 dustry hitherto employed in the general business of fishing, or mer- 

 chandise offish ; and on that field might the few fishermen who had, 

 hitherto, used the liberty of taking and curing fish within the ju- 

 risdiction of Great Britain, exert their skill and labour without any 

 serious inconvenience. (155) That liberty, liable, (loG) to a very 

 considerable degree, by the terms in which it was granted, to be 

 curtailed by the government and subjects of a foreign state, already 

 growing into voluntary disuse by eur own citizens, on account of 

 the difficulties inseparable from it, and absolutely incapable of ex- 

 tension, was totally unnecessary to us for subsistence or occupa- 

 tion, and afforded, (157) in no honest way, either commercial facility, 

 or political advantage. This privilege, too, while it was thus of 

 little (15S) and precarious utility to US, cost Great Britain literally 

 (159) nothing. 



The free navigation of the Mississippi, with the necessary acce^ji 

 to it, is a grant of a very different character. If it was not, here- 

 tofore, used by Great Britain, it was, perhaps, because she did not 

 consider herself entitled to it ; or because the circumstances of the 

 moment suspended its practical utility. The treaty of 1783 stipu- 

 lated, for her, the navigation of this river, under the presumption 

 that her territories extended to it, and of course, could not irtead 

 to give her access to it through our territories. The British pos- 

 5e?-;ions to the westward of Lake Erio being almost eutirely unset- 



