QUESTION SEVEN. 



Are the inhabitants of the United States whose vessels resort to the 

 treaty coasts for the purpose of exercising the liberties referred to in 

 Article I of the treaty of 1818 entitled to have for those vessels, when 

 duly authorized by the United States in that behalf, the commercial 

 privileges on the treaty coasts accorded by agreement or otherwise to 

 United States trading vessels generally? 



SCOPE AND MEANING OF THE QUESTION. 



The positions of the United States and Great Britain, as presented 

 in their respective Cases and Counter Cases, differ so widely in regard 

 to the scope and meaning of this Question that it is desirable that the 

 grounds, on which the position of the United States rests, be discussed 

 herein with some detail. 



The British Case assumes throughout that the United States must 

 prove that commercial privileges were secured by the treaty of 1818 

 in order to sustain its contention under this Question. The United 

 States does not so understand the Question. 



As pointed out in the discussion of Question Three, the United States 

 has never asserted, and does not now assert, that general commercial 

 privileges for its fishing vessels constitute any part of the liberties 

 referred to in Article I of the treaty of 1818. That treaty neither con- 

 ferred nor as the United States contends denied commercial privi- 

 leges. It was a treaty concerning a fishing liberty, carrying the rights 

 necessarily incidental to such liberty, and did not concern itself with 

 commercial privileges. General commercial privileges, so far as the 

 British North American colonies were concerned, were first extended 

 to the inhabitants of the United States by the British Order in Council 

 of November 5, 1830. Reciprocal commercial privileges were granted 

 by the United States for the benefit of the inhabitants of those col- 

 onies, by the Act of Congress, May 29, 1830, and by a presidential 



British Case, Appendix, 670. 257 



