24 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



tain portion of the said fisheries, that offer was made with the under- 

 standing that the article now proposed, or any other on the same sub- 

 ject which might be agreed on, should be considered as permanent, 

 and, like one for fixing boundaries between the territories of the two 

 parties, not to be abrogated by the mere fact of a war between them ; 

 or that, if vacated by any event whatever, the rights of both parties 

 should revive and be in full force, as if such an article had not been 

 agreed to." (British Case, App., p. 88.) 



The difference of opinion referred to was fully debated between the 

 Commissioners, but, as appears from the separate report of Mr. Gal- 

 latin (one of the United States Commissioners) the British Commis- 

 sioners adhered firmly to their view. He said : 



" I became perfectly satisfied that no reliance could be placed on 

 legal remedies; that no court in England would give to the treaty 

 of 1783 a construction different from that adopted by their Govern- 

 ment, and that if an Act of Parliament was wanted, it would be 

 obtained in a week's time and without opposition." (British Case, 

 App., p. 97.) 



If, then, it be said that the new treaty was intended to be an ac- 

 knowledgment of the existence of previous liberties, the replies are : 



1. The old liberties were not all renewed. 



2. Some new liberties were created. 



3. The United States negotiators of the treaty proposed that the 

 language of the new treaty should be 



" the inhabitants of the said United States shall continue to enjoy 

 unmolested, for ever, the liberty to take fish," &c. (British Case, 

 App., p. 88.) 



The British Commissioners declined to permit the use of the lan- 

 guage. And the treaty is couched in terms which point to a fresh 

 concession only: 



" It is agreed between the high contracting parties that the in- 

 habitants of the said United States shall have, for ever, in common 

 with the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, the liberty to take 

 fish," &c. (British Case, App., p. 30.) 



28 Recognition of the existence of liberties of any sort, there- 



fore, was steadily refused by the British Government from the 

 opening of the negotiations at Ghent in 1814 ; throughout the Adams- 

 Bathurst negotiations in 1815; throughout the Bagot-Monroe nego- 

 tiations in Washington in 1816; throughout the negotiations of the 

 treaty itself; and, by the treaty, the United States took, not that 

 which they would have obtained upon the basis of a recognition of 

 rights, but that which the British Government was willing to con- 

 cede. It cannot therefore be said that the treaty was intended to be 

 a recognition of existing rights. 



