CORRESPONDENCE 403 



can Minister, the time of tlie settlement of North America was the origin of the 

 liberties of the United States in respect to the fisheries, and their independence, as 

 recognised in 1783, was, as further argued by him, the mere recognition of rights and 

 liberties previously existing, (which must have been in virtue of their independence), 

 it would seem to follow that their independence was recognised from the time of the 

 settlement of North America — for no other period can be assigned. The under- 

 signed is totally unable to collect when the American Minister considers the inde- 

 pendence of his country to have commenced; yet this is a point of no small importance, 

 if other rights are to be represented as coeval with it, or dependent on it. 



As to the origin of these privileges, in point of fact, the undersigned is ready to 

 admit that, so long as the United States constituted a part of the dominions of His 

 Majesty, the inhabitants had the enjoyment of them, as they had of other political 

 and commercial advantages, in common with His Majesty's subjects. But they had, 

 at the same time, in common with His Majesty's other subjects, duties to perform; 

 and when the United States, by their separation from Great Britain, became released 

 from the duties, they became excluded also from the advantages of British subjects. 

 They cannot, therefore, now claim, otherwise than by treaty, the exercise of privileges 

 belonging to them as British subjects, unless they are prepared to admit, on the 

 part of Great Britain, the exercise of the rights which she enjoyed previous to the 

 separation. 



If it be contended, on the part of the United States, that, in consequence of having 

 been once a part of the British dominions, they are now entitled, as of right, to all 

 the privileges which they enjoyed as British subjects, in addition to those which they 

 have as an independent people, the undersigned cannot too strongly protest against 

 such a doctrine; and it must become doubly necessary for Great Britain to hesitate 

 in conceding the privileges which are now the subject of discussion, lest, by such a 

 concession, she should be supposed to countenance a principle not less novel than 

 alarming. 



But, though Great Britain can never admit the claim of the United States to enjoy 

 those liberties, with respect to the fisheries, as matter of right, she is by no means 

 insensible to some of those considerations with which the letter of the American Minister 

 concludes. 



Although His Majesty's Government cannot admit that the claim of the American 

 fishermen to fish within British jurisdiction, and to use the British territory for pur- 

 poses connected with their fishery, is analogous to the indulgence which has been 

 granted to enemy's subjects engaged in fishing on the high seas, for the purpose of 

 conveying fresh fish to market, yet they do feel that the enjoyment of the liberties, 

 formerly used by the inhabitants of the United States, may be very conducive to 

 their national and individual prosperity, though they should be placed under some 

 modifications; and this feeling operates most forcibly in favor of concession. But 

 Great Britain can only ofier the concession in a way which shall effectually protect 

 her own subjects from such obstructions to their lawful enterprises as they too fre- 

 quently experienced immediately previous to the late war, and which are, from their 

 very nature, calculated to produce collision and disunion between the two States. 



It was not of fair competition that His Majesty's Government had reason to com- 

 plain, but of the preoccupation of British harbours and creeks, in North America, by 

 the fishing vessels of the United States, and the forcible exclusion of British vessels 

 from places where the fishery might be most advantageously conducted. They had, 

 likewise, reason to complain of the clandestine introduction of prohibited goods into 



