cxiv INTRODUCTION 



he intimated the willingness of Great Britain "to enter into negotia- 

 tions with the Government of the United States for the modified renewal 

 of the liberties in question," and expressed the hope that the United 

 States might be induced by a consideration of these obstructions "ami- 

 cably and cordially, to co-operate with His Majesty's Government in 

 devising such restrictions as shall prevent the recurrence of similar incon- 

 veniences." It is thus seen that Great Britain, while regarding the 

 liberty of 1783 as abrogated, was nevertheless willing to consent to its 

 renewal with such modifications as would prevent the "inconveniences "; 

 namely, the preoccupation of British harbors and creeks — that is 

 to say, of British waters close to the shore, and the introduction of 

 chattels and goods in violation of the revenue laws. 



If the language of Lord Bathurst had been incorporated in the renun- 

 ciatory clause there would have been httle or no diflSculty, because 

 the meaning of harbors and creeks would have been sufficiently clear. 

 The introduction of the word "bays" complicates the matter, and unless 

 bays be used in the restrictive sense and is analogous to harbors or 

 creeks, it may well be presumed that the easy terms upon which Lord 

 Bathurst was willing to regrant the liberty were modified by a subse- 

 quent consideration of the advantages or disadvantages of the proposed 

 renewal. 



The Treaty of 1783 throws little Ught upon the subject of bays, 

 because they are not defined in the treaty. It is evident, however, that 

 the United States only renounced by the Convention of 1818 what it 

 acquired by the Treaty of 1783, because the American negotiators were 

 very careful to place in juxtaposition the Uberty of 1783, modified in 

 extent though not in nature by the convention, and the renunciation by 

 the Convention of 1818 of part of the liberty acquired by the Treaty of 

 1783. The British negotiators objected to the renunciation clause as 

 seeming to admit the American contention that the hberty of 1818 was, 

 except as modified, a continuation of the liberty of 1783, but they yielded 

 to the insistence of the American negotiators, who expressly state in 

 their official report to their government, written on the very day of the 

 signing of the treaty that "we insisted on it with the view — ist. Of 

 preventing any implication that the fisheries secured to us were a new 

 grant, and of placing the permanence of the rights secured and those 

 renounced precisely on the same footing. 2d. Of its being expressly 

 stated that our renunciation extended only to the distance of three miles 

 from the coasts." ' 



Contemporaneous interpretation is ordinarily considered the best, 



■ Appendix, U. S. Case, Vol. I, p. 307. 



