318 DURATION OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION. [1819. 



That the Nootka convention expired on the declaration of war by 

 Spain against Great Britain in 1796, and could not have been after 

 that period in force, except in virtue of a distinct and formal renewal 

 by the same parties — is consonant with the universal practice of civ- 

 ilized nations, and especially of Great Britain, as manifested during 

 the well-known negotiations between her government and that of 

 the United States, in 1815, respecting the Newfoundland fishery. 

 Mr. Adams, the American plenipotentiary, on that occasion, insisted 

 that his countrymen should continue, not only to fish on the Banks 

 of Newfoundland, but also to land on the British American coasts 

 for the same purpose, as they had done before the war of 1812, by 

 the treaty of 1783, although that treaty had not been renewed by 

 the treaty of Ghent, at the termination of the war — upon the ground 

 that the treaty of 1783, by which Great Britain acknowledged the 

 independence of the United States, was " of a peculiar 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." To this the British 

 minister, Lord Bathurst, answered, that, " if the United States derived 

 from the treaty of 1783 privileges from which other independent 

 nations, not admitted by treaty, were excluded, the duration of those 

 privileges must depend on the duration of the instrument by which 

 they were granted ; and if the war abrogated the treaty, it deter- 

 mined the privileges. It has been urged, indeed," continues his 

 lordship, " on the part of the United States, that the treaty of 1783 

 was of a peculiar nature, and that, because it contained a recognition 

 of American independence, it could not be abrogated by a subse- 

 quent war between the parties. To a position of this novel nature 

 Great Britain cannot accede. *S"Ae Jcnows of no exception to the rule, 

 that all treaties are put an end to by a subsequent war between the 

 same parties : she cannot, therefore, consent to give to her diplo- 

 matic relations with one state a different degree of permanency 

 from that on which her connection with all other states depends. 

 Nor can she consider any one state at liberty to assign to a 

 treaty, made with her, such a peculiarity of character, as shall 

 make it, as to duration, an exception to all other treaties, in order 

 to found on a peculiarity thus assumed an irrevocable title to all 

 indulgences which have all the features of temporary concessions." 

 The British minister, indeed, admitted that recognitions of right 

 in a treaty might be considered as perpetual obligations : and, refer- 

 ring to the terms of the treaty of 1783, he showed that the right of 



