INTRODUCTION cxxiii 



such accommodation for their fishery, within the British jurisdiction, as 

 may be consistent with the proper administration of His Majesty's 

 dominions." ' Mr. Bagot then states that it is not necessary to "advert 

 to the discussion which has taken place between Earl Bathurst and Mr. 

 Adams" and refers to Lord Bathurst's notes as "a full expression of 

 the groimds upon which the liberty of drying and fishing within the 

 British limits . . . was considered to have ceased with the war." Mr. 

 Bagot regards the renewal of the fishery liberty as a concession "within 

 the British sovereignty, to a foreign state," and informs Mr. Monroe 

 that "it has not been thought necessary to furnish me [Bagot] with addi- 

 tional argument upon this point." In other words, the reasons advanced 

 by Lord Bathurst against fishing within British waters close upon the 

 shore were considered as a correct and authoritative expression of the 

 views of the British Government. In the subsequent portion of the same 

 note the British Minister speaks of an offer he had made conditioned 

 upon the fact "that all pretensions to fish or dry within the maritime 

 limits . . . should be abandoned."^ 



Mr. Bagot, it would appear, had used these expressions advisedly, 

 because Lord Castlereagh, then in charge of the Foreign OflSce, had 

 transmitted to him "copies of the notes which had been exchanged 

 between the American Minister in London and His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment," and Mr. Bagot was directed to conform his language in his inter- 

 course with the American Secretary of State "to the principles which 

 had been brought forward in this correspondence on the part of your 

 pus] Court." Lord Castlereagh did not content himself, however, with 

 a general reference to Lord Bathurst's notes. He refers to them specifi- 

 cally as containing the "grounds fully explained upon which the liberty 

 of fishing and drying within our limits . . . was considered to have 

 ceased with the war," and Lord Castlereagh further stated that Lord 

 Bathurst's notes "detailed the serious considerations affecting not only 

 the prosperity of our own fishery, but the general interest of the British 

 dominions in matters of revenue as weU as of Government, which made 

 it incumbent upon His Majesty's Government to oppose the renewal of 

 so extensive and injurious a concession within the British sovereignty to 

 a foreign state, founded upon no principle of reciprocity or adequate 

 compensation whatever." ' 



Lord Castlereagh further said: 



"The object of the Americans being, that in addition to the right of fishing de- 

 clared by the first branch of Article IV [III] of the Treaty of 1783, permanently to 



' Appendix, U. S. Case, Vol. I, p. 289. ^ Appendix, U. S. Case, Vol. I, p. 291. 



' Viscount Castlereagh's letter, dated April 16, 1816, to Mr. Bagot. (Appendix, British 

 Counter Case, p. 175.) 



