230 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The evident reading distributively is, coasts of those colonies and 

 shores of the islands thereof, and also upon the Magdalen Islands. 



When the treaty of 1818 deals with Labrador the phrase changes 

 again and, reducing the extent of coast secured to the United States, 

 follows almost exactly the closing language of the corresponding 

 part of the treaty of 1783. 



1783 



and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of His Britannic 

 Majesty's dominions in America. 



1818 



and also on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks from Mount Joly on 

 the southern coast of Labrador to, and through the Streights of Belle- 

 isle and thence northwardly indefinitely along the coast, without 

 prejudice, etc. 



It will be noticed how completely " coast " sweeps in and includes 

 the detail of bays, harbors, and creeks previously mentioned. 



If any further evidence were needed that the negotiators were 

 following literally the treaty of 1783, the almost identical language 

 used concerning the right to dry and cure fish would furnish it. 

 Even the peculiar phrase " without a previous agreement for that 

 purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the 

 ground," is copied almost verbatim. 



It is submitted, then, that the treaty of 1818 was in many respects a 

 Chinese copy of the treaty of 1783. The extent of fishing grounds 

 was reduced, but on the portions of the coasts where the right to fish 

 was retained, it covered the same waters to which it previously ex- 

 tended. Americans used the bays, harbors, and creeks of all British 

 coasts in the North Atlantic before 1818 ; they used them afterwards 

 upon a more limited extent of coast. 



CONTENTION OF THE UNITED STATES CONFIRMED BY GREAT 



BRITAIN. 



Lord Bathurst, in his instructions to the governor of New- 

 foundland of June 21, 1819, immediately after the signing of the 

 treaty and the passage of the act of 1819, which he enclosed, made 

 no suggestion that Americans are to be excluded from the bays of 



British Case Appendix, 99. 



