QUESTION FIVE. 137 



Lord Bathurst answered Mr. Adams' note on October 30, and 

 adopted his statement of the extent of British jurisdiction : 



The undersigned, one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of 

 State, had the honor of receiving the letter of the minister of the 

 United States, dated the 25th ultimo, containing the grounds upon 

 which the United States conceive themselves, at the present time, 

 entitled to prosecute their fisheries within the limits of the British 

 Sovereignty, and to use British territories for purposes connected 

 with the fisheries.* 



Here was a formal, definite, and distinct understanding between 

 these representatives of the two powers as to what constituted " the 

 limits of the British sovereignty," or " His Britannic Majesty's 

 Dominions in America ;" and throughout the negotiations thereafter, 

 it was ever in the minds of the representatives of both powers that 

 the " British jurisdiction " in America or " His Majesty's Dominion " 

 was without question acknowledged to be limited, in respect of the 

 fisheries, to one marine league from the shores of the British posses- 

 sions in North America, within which lay the bays, creeks, harbors, 

 and waters close upon the shores now denied to the vessels of the 

 United States. This admission of the limitation of British jurisdic- 

 tion necessarily implied that beyond such limit no right to exercise 

 sovereignty was claimed as against the rights and liberty of the 

 people of the United States in respect of the fisheries. 



Lord Bathurst further stated in his reply to Mr. Adams' note 

 that 



the Minister of the United States appears by his letter to be well 

 aware that Great Britain has always considered the liberty formerly 

 enjoyed by the United States of fishing within British limits and 

 using British territory as derived from the Third Article of the 

 Treaty of 1783, and from that alone ; and that the claim of an inde- 

 pendent state to occupy? and use at its discretion any portion of the 

 territory of another without compensation or corresponding indul- 

 gence can not rest on any other foundation than conventional stipu- 

 lation. 6 



Lord Bathurst here refers to "fishing within the British limits," 

 and " using British Territory " as similar acts, and regarded both as 

 the invasion of the territorial jurisdiction of Great Britain. 



Lord Bathurst in this note, expressed a willingness to enter into 

 negotiations for the modified renewal of the liberties in dispute. 



a TJ. S. Case, Appendix, 273. 

 U. S. Case, Appendix, 274. 

 C U. S. Case, Appendix, 278. 



