8 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



both countries used at any time heretofore to fish; and also to dry 

 and cure their fish on the shores of the Isle of Sables, Cape Sables, 

 and the shores of any of the unsettled bays, harbors, or creeks of 

 Nova Scotia, and of the Magdalen Islands. And his Britannic 

 Majesty and the said United States will extend equal privileges and 

 hospitality to each other's fishermen as to their own. 



These provisional articles, like the former, were referred to Lon- 

 don for approval, and they were likewise rejected by the British 

 ministry, who prepared and forwarded to Paris a counter draft, 

 which was on November 25, 1782, delivered to the American Com- 

 missioners. The fisheries article proposed by the British Govern- 

 ment was as follows : 



Article III. The citizens of the said United States shall have 

 the liberty of taking fish of every kind on all the banks of New- 

 foundland, and also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and also to dry 

 and cure their fish on the shores of the Isle of Sables and on the 

 shores of any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of the Mag- 

 dalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, so long as such bays, 

 harbors, and creeks shall continue and remain unsettled; on condi- 

 tion that the citizens of the said United States do not exercise the 

 fishery, but at the distance of three leagues from all the coast belong- 

 ing to Great Britain, as well those of the continent as those of the 

 islands situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And as to what relates 

 to the fishery on the coast of the Island of Cape Breton out of the 

 said gulf, the citizens of the said United States shall not be permitted 

 to exercise the said fishery, but at the distance of fifteen leagues from 

 the coasts of the Island of Cape Breton. 



The most noticeable differences between this proposed article and 

 the ones, which had preceded it in the negotiations, were the elimina- 

 tion of the reciprocal use of the shores of the United States by 

 British fishermen, and the prohibition imposed upon American 

 fishermen of taking fish within three leagues of the British coasts 

 generally and within fifteen leagues of the Island of Cape Breton in 

 particular, following, as to this prohibition, the terms of the treaty 

 of 1763 with France. In addition to these differences the proposed 

 article limited the shores open to Americans for the purposes of 

 drying and curing fish to those of the Isle of Sables and the 

 Magdalen Islands. 



This British counter draffe had been forwarded to Mr. Oswald, the 

 British Commissioner, with an authorization by his Government to 

 use his discretion in reaching a final agreement with the American 

 Commissioners in relation to the fisheries; and upon the latter 

 emphatically declining to consider the proposed restriction of the 



