234 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
of the entrance of bays or indents of the coast,” and 
that, consequently, American fishermen had no right 
to enter bays, there to take fish, although the fishing 
might be at a greater distance than three miles from 
the shore of the bay. 
This opinion, be it observed, makes no distinction 
between close bays and open ones, large indents of 
the coast and small ones, and, if carried into effect by 
the British Government, would exclude citizens of the 
United States from a large part of the productive fish- 
ing-grounds on the coast of British America. 
Now, strange to say, this opinion of the Law Officers 
of the Crown is based on a mere blunder of theirs, 
or, to say the least, on a fiction, or a bald interpolation. 
After stating their conclusion, they assign, as the 
sole reason of it: 
“ As [that is, because] we are of opinion that the term ‘ head- 
land’ is used in the treaty to express the part of the land 
we have before mentioned, including the interior of the bays 
and the indents of the coasts.” 
It is not true that “the term ‘headland’ is used in 
the treaty to express the part of the land we have 
before mentioned.” 
Neither the term “headland” nor any word of simi- 
lar signification is to be found in the treaty. The 
Law Officers of the Crown undertook to-construe the 
treaty without reading it, and by this presumptuous 
carelessness caused the British Government to initi- 
ate a series of measures of a semi-hostile character, 
which came very near producing another war be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States, 
