1909-] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 321 



from drying fish on the shores of Nova Scotia, but also to catch 

 fish within three leagues of the shores around the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence and within fifteen leagues of the shores of Cape Breton 

 Island on its seaward side. Thus by this last provision the British 

 envoys wished to close to American citizens the right to fish in a 

 part of the high seas that were then recognized as a joint possession 

 of all mankind. These proposals were promptly rejected by the 

 American commissioners, and on November 28, John Adams, for 

 the latter, submitted a counter plan.^ Further parleys were held on 

 this important question. As the Americans contended firmly for 

 the rights of their citizens to fish on the Newfoundland banks, and 

 Adams said he would not sign any agreement that did not secure to 

 the American fishermen the right to catch fish in the Newfoundland 

 and adjacent waters, the British commissioners yielded the point.* 

 After numerous propositions and changes, the contending negotia- 

 tors at length agreed on the following article that was embodied in 

 the treaty of peace finally signed in 1783.^ 



Article III'. It is agreed that the people of the United States shall con- 

 tinue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand 

 Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland ; also in the Gulph of St. 

 Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both 

 countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And also that the inhabitants 

 of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part 

 of the coast of Newfoundland as British fisherman shall use, (but not to dry 

 or cure the same on that island;) and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of 

 all other of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the 

 American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the 

 unsettled bays, tharbors and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and 

 Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled ; but so soon as the 

 same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said 

 fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlements, without a previous agreement 

 for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the ground. 



Thus that treaty, that provided for a partition between the 

 motherland and her North American colonies of the territory that 

 they enjoyed in common, also provided for a partition in the en- 



' Francis Wharton, "The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of 

 the United States," Washington. 1889, Vol. VI., p. 85. 



* Francis Wharton, " The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of 

 the United States," Washington, 1889, pp. 86-87. 



° " Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of 

 America and other Powers since July 4, 1776," Washington, 1889, p. 2>77- 



