404 APPENDIX 



the British colonies by American vessels ostensibly engaged in the fishing trade, to 

 the great injury of the British revenue. 



The undersigned has felt it incumbent on him thus generally to notice these obstruc- 

 tions, in the hope that the attention of the Government of the United States will be 

 directed to the subject; and that they may be induced, amicably and cordially, to 

 co-operate with His Majesty's Government in devising such regulations as shall 

 prevent the recurrence of similar inconveniences. 



His Majesty's Government are willing to enter into negotiations with the Govern- 

 ment of the United States for the modified renewal of the liberties in question; and 

 they doubt not that an arrangement may be made, satisfactory to both countries, 

 and tending to confirm the amity now so happily subsisting between them. 



The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity of renewing to Mr. Adams 

 the assurances of his high consideration. Bathuest 



NOTE FROM MR. ADAMS TO VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, JANUARY 22, 1816' 



13 Craven Street, January 22, 1816 

 The undersigned. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the 

 United States of America, has received, and communicated to the Government of 

 the United States, the answer of Lord Bathurst to a letter which he had the honour 

 of addressing to his Lordship on the 2Sth September last, representing the grounds 

 upon which the American Government consider the people of the United States entitled 

 to all the rights and liberties in and connected with the fisheries on the coasts of 

 North America, which had been enjoyed by them previously to the American revolu- 

 tion, and which, by the third article of the treaty of peace of 1783, were recognised 

 by Great Britain as rights and liberties belonging to them. The reply to Lord 

 Bathurst's note has been delayed by circumstances which it is unnecessary to detail. 

 It is for the Government of the United States alone to decide upon the proposal of 

 a negotiation upon the subject. That they will at all times be ready to agree upon 

 arrangements which may obviate and prevent the recurrence of those inconveniences 

 stated to have resulted from the exercise by the people of the United States of these 

 rights and liberties, is not to be doubted; but as Lord Bathurst appears to have under- 

 stood some of the observations in the letter of the undersigned as importing inferences 

 not intended by him, and as some of his Lordship's remarks particularly require a 

 reply, it is presumed that, since Lord Castlereagh's return, it will, with propriety, 

 be addressed to him. 



It had been stated, in the letter to Lord Bathurst, that the treaty of peace of 1783 

 between Great Britain and the United States was of a pecuUar nature, and bore in 

 that nature a character of permanency, not subject, like many of the ordinary contracts 

 between independent nations, to abrogation by a subsequent war between the same 

 parties. His Lordship not only considers this as a position of a novel nature, to which 

 Great Britain cannot accede, but as claiming for the diplomatic relations of the United 

 States with her a different degree of permanency from that on which her connections 

 with all other States depend. He denies the right of any one State to assign to a treaty 

 made with her such a peculiarity of character as to make it in duration an exception 

 to all other treaties, in order to found on a peculiarity thus assumed an irrevocable 

 title to all indulgences which (he alleges) have all the features of temporary conces- 

 sions; and he adds, in unqualified terms, that "Great Britain knows oj no exception 

 ' Appendix, U. S. Case, p. 279; Appendix, British Case, pp. 72-76. 



