MISCELLANEOUS. 1269 



reply to that part of our note was given by the British plenipoten- 

 tiaries." * 



To Lord Falkland's second and third queries the Queen's advocate 

 and her Majesty's attorney general reply: 



"Except within certain defined limits, to which the query put to us 

 does not apply, we are of opinion that, by the terms of the treaty, 

 American citizens are excluded from the right of fishing within three 

 miles of the coast of British America; and that the prescribed distance 

 of three miles is to be measured from the headlands or extreme 

 points of land next the sea of the coast, or of the entrance of the bays, 

 and not from the interior of such bays or inlets of the coast; and, 

 consequently, that no right exists, on the part of American citizens, to 

 enter the bays of Nova Scotia, there to take fish, although the fishing 

 being within the bay, may be at a greater distance than three miles 

 from the shore of the bay, as we are of opinion that the term headland 

 is used in the treaty to express the part of the land we have before 

 mentioned, excluding the interior or the bays and the inlets of the 

 coast." 



It is somewhat remarkable that the term "headland" does not once 

 occur in the convention. Of course, so important a mistake as this 

 leaves these learned gentlemen in an unfortunate position. The single 

 word "headland," on which they found their argument, is not once 

 "used," I repeat, in the instrument which they are required to inter- 

 pret. I affirm, further, that the idea of excluding our vessels from 

 the "bays of Nova Scotia" was not entertained, nor so much as men- 

 tioned, during the negotiations which preceded the convention. The 

 consultations between Mr. Adams and Lord Bathurst commenced on 



* It has been suggested to me by gentlemen of high consideration in our national coun- 

 cils, that Mr. Adams, by consenting to the convention of 1818, abandoned the principle 

 which is here so ably asserted. If it can be shown that he really did consent to that 

 convention, the suggestion is not without force, since it is manifest, that on the ground 

 taken by our commissioners at Ghent, no new stipulations were necessary. But I have 

 never believed that Mr. Adams, as Secretary of State, approved of the terms of the 

 convention; and my conjecture has been, that he persisted in the views which he 

 entertained in 1814, and was overruled by other members of Mr. Monroe's cabinet. 

 Desirous, if possible, to ascertain the precise fact upon so important a point, I addressed 

 a note of inquiry to the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, his only surviving son and execu 

 tor. This gentleman consulted his father's diary, and kindly furnished me with the 

 following minutes of a conversation with the British minister at Washington, (Mr. 

 Bagot,) on the 15th of May, 1818. This extract will remove all doubt, as it seems to 

 me, as to the consistency of Mr. Atlams, and shows that he submitted, rather than con- 

 sented, to a negotiation which he had not the power to prevent, as well as to terms 

 which he disliked, and which had been partially or entirely determined upon by our 

 government before his return from England, or before he became a member of the 

 cabinet. 



"As to the proposal which was to have been made to the British government," he 

 recorded, "and which had hitherto been delayed, its postponement had been owing 

 to difficulties which had been discovered since it was promised. It was founded on the 

 principle of assuming a range of coast within given latitudes for our fishermen to fre- 

 quent, and abandoning the right to fish for the rest. But the fish, themselves, resorted 

 at different times to different parts of the coast, and a place which might be selected 

 as very eligible now, might be in the course of four or five years entirely deserted. 

 For my own part, I had always been averse to any proposal of accommodation. I thought 

 our whole right, as stipulated by the treaty of 1783, so clear, that I was for maintaining the 

 whole; and if force should be applied to prevent our fishermen from frequenting the coast, 

 I would have protested against it, and reserved the right of recovering THE WHOLE BY FORCB, 

 whenever we should be able. IT HAD, HOWEVER, BEEN DETERMINED OTHERWISE HERE, 

 AND A PROPOSAL HAD BEEN PROMISED. Perhaps we should ultimately offer to give up 

 the right of drying and curing on the shore, and reserve the whole right of fishing." 



