that no court in England would give to the treaty of 1783 a construction different from that adopted by their Government, and that if an Act of Parliament was wanted, it would be obtained in a week's time and without opposition. If the subject was not arranged, immediate collision must ensue, and, Great Britain proceeding under legal forms to condemn our vessels, no resource remained for us but to acquiesce or commence hostilities. With much reluctance I yielded to those considerations, rendered more powerful by our critical situation with Spain, and used my best endeavours to make the compromise on the most advantageous terms that could be obtained. After a thorough examination of the communications on the subject which you transmitted to us, I think that substantially we have lost very little, if anything; and I only wish that it had been practicable to give to the agreement the form of an exchange in direct terms; that is to say, that we give fishing rights in certain quarters in consideration of the right of curing fish on a part of Newfoundland and of the abandonment of the British claim to the navigation of the Mississippi. This, however, could not be done in a positive manner, the British plenipotentiaries disclaiming any right to that navigation, and objecting, therefore, to a renunciation of what they did not claim. The article which they proposed on this last subject was only, as they said, an equivalent for what they pretended to concede in agreeing that the boundary west of the Lake of the Woods should be fixed at the 49th degree of north latitude.

98

No. 42.-1819, June 14: Extract from Letter from Mr. Rush, Envoy, &c., at London, to Mr. Adams, Secretary of State.

*

*

*

I was honoured, on the 8th instant, with your despatch No. 17, of the 7th of May.

On the 9th I addressed a note to Lord Castlereagh, to request an interview, that I might proceed to lay before this Government, without losing any time, the determinations to which the President had come on the important subject of the commercial intercourse between the United States and the West Indies. His Lordship appointed yesterday for me to wait upon him.

I commenced with calling to mind the point at which the discussions had left off upon this branch of the negotiation last autumn, and gave a new assurance of the President's earnest desire to see this trade opened upon a footing of entire and liberal reciprocity, rather than stand any longer upon the conflict of arbitrary laws. In this spirit I was instructed to offer a projet, which had been carefully drawn up upon the basis of a compromise between the pretensions of the two parties, and which, indeed, would be found to fall in so entirely with the propositions of Great Britain, in some respects, and to make such an approximation to them in others, that a hope was cherished of its proving acceptable.

That, in particular, it would be found to adopt the description of naval stores and of lumber, as articles to be exported from the United States, upon which the British plenipotentiaries had themselves insisted confining the former to pitch, tar, and turpentine, and the latter to staves, headings, and shingles, contrary to the more enlarged signification which it had been the desire of the American plenipotentiaries to give to them; that it acquiesced, also, in the exclusion of all salted provisions, including the important article of fish; that it, moreover, came wholly into the British views in consenting to the exclusion of sugar and coffee as articles to be imported into the United States from the British West Indies; it being understood that the above traffic was to be opened upon equal terms, in all respects, to American and British vessels.

In return for such an accommodation to the colonial views of Great Britain, the project asked, on the other hand, that the list of articles exportable from the United States to the West Indies should be the same as to Bermuda and to the British North American colonies; that the articles exportable to the United States should be confined to such as were of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the above islands or colonies; and that the same duties, and no more, should be payable on importations from the United States into the West Indies, whether the articles were brought directly or indirectly, as on similar articles imported into the West Indies from any foreign country, or from any of the British colonies.

With this outline of its contents, I handed a copy of the projet which came enclosed in your despatch to his Lordship. The discussions between the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments having recently been so ample on the matters which it embraces, I thought that nothing was likely to be gained by my leaving room for the possible hope that any of its essential provisions would be departed from. Accordingly, I deemed it best to say with candour, in the first instance, that, as it was offered, so was it to be taken; for that my present instructions would admit of no deviations, unless on points verbal, or otherwise immaterial. I shall bear in mind that the parts within crotchets may be omitted. His Lordship received it with an assurance that a full and candid consideration would be given to it. The pressure of parliamentary business might, he said, delay an attention to it for some weeks, but that, at as early a day as was practicable, it would be taken up. I replied that I believed that the great object would be attained on our side if a decision were communicated to me in full time to be made known to the President before the next session of Congress. Should our propositions prove acceptable, I was empowered, I added, to make them supplementary to the convention of the 20th of October, subject always to the ratification of the Senate. I here closed, having endeavoured, in the course of my remarks, to convey to his Lordship's mind those general reasonings applicable to our propositions which are unfolded in your despatch, and to which I shall again advert on future occasions, should it become necessary. The confidential report of the 19th of February, by the Committee of Foreign Relations in the Senate, was safely received under cover of your despatch.

*

99

No. 43.-1819, June 21: Letter from Lord Bathurst (British Colonial Secretary) to Sir C. Hamilton (Governor of Newfoundland).

Governor Sir C. HAMILTON Bart..

DOWNING STREET 21st June 1819.

SIR, In my despatch of the 8th April I had the honour of transmitting to you a convention which had been entered into between His Majesty and the United States of America part of which refers to the taking and curing of fish by the citizens of the United States on the coasts of certain of His Majesty's possessions in North America. I have now to enclose you a copy of an Act to give effect to that convention which has since received the royal assent and of an order in council which His Royal Highness has been pleased to issue in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty. As the inhabitants of the United States will undoubtedly proceed without delay to exercise the privilege granted to them under that convention His Royal Highness has commanded me to call your special attention to some points upon which it is probable that in regulating your conduct under the convention you may desire to receive instructions.

You will in the first place observe that the privilege granted to the citizens of the United States is one purely of fishery and of drying and curing fish within the limits severally specified in the convention. It is the pleasure of His Royal Highness that this privilege as limited by the convention should be fully and freely enjoyed by them without any hindrance or interference. But you will at the same time remark that all attempts to carry on trade or to introduce articles for sale or barter into His Majesty's possessions under the pretence of exercising the rights conferred by the convention is in every respect at variance with its stipulations. You will therefore promulgate as publicly as possible the nature of the indulgence which you are under the convention instructed to allow to them, and in case any of the inhabitants of the United States should be found attempting to carry on a trade not authorised by the convention you will in the first instance warn them of the illegality of such a proceeding and in the event of their being afterwards engaged in it you will not hesitate to adopt with respect to them the same means of control and the same punishments and forfeitures as would be legally applicable in the trade of any other foreign nation possessing no privilege of fishery whatever. With respect to the fishery which the citizens of the United States are authorised to carry on upon the coast of Labrador you will take care that it be carried on by them within the specified limits in the same manner as previous to the late war with the United States, taking every precaution however against that introduction of contraband articles into Newfoundland or His Majesty's possessions in North America to which it was previous to the war notoriously perverted.

The right of drying and curing in the southern part of the coast of Newfoundland stands in some degree upon a different footing. It is a new privilege conferred for the first time by this convention and it is more limited than that assigned to them on the coast of Labrador inasmuch as the inhabitants of the United States have no

privilege even with the consent of the settlers of drying and curing in any bay harbour or creek of Newfoundland which may have been settled previous to the signature of the convention, while a fair construction of the treaty leaves open to them in Labrador every harbour not settled previous to the peace of 1783. I am aware that some difficulty may arise in deciding the extent to which a settlement in any bay, harbour or creek is necessary to constitute an exclusion of American fishermen under the convention.

It is obvious from the terms of the convention that a single settlement in a bay harbour or creek is not in itself a sufficient ground for such an exclusion but on the other hand it is equally clear that if the settlements in any particular bay harbour or creek be so numerous as to leave but little interval between the British establishments already formed the American fishermen can have no fair ground for occupying any part of such bay harbour or creek and you will so regulate your proceeding in this respect as while you give the inhabitants of the United States on the one hand every facility for curing and drying their fish on the specified part of the coast of Newfoundland you afford on the other to His Majesty's subjects every reasonable protection against an unfair interference and intrusion inconsistent with the spirit of the treaty.

You will take care also that the inhabitants of the United States do not become settlers in the colony and that they do not make such establishments as may interfere with the future settlement of the land on which they may be made. The intention of the treaty being merely that they should dry in His Majesty's territory for the purpose of curing their fish in common with British fishermen and not that they should remain permanently established within His Majesty's dominions to the prejudice of His Majesty's subjects.

You will also give such directions as may be necessary for securing to the American fishermen the privileges of entering the harbours of Newfoundland for the purpose of shelter and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood and of obtaining water but for no other purpose whatever, and I must on this point also direct your particular attention to the necessity of exercising great vigilance in order to prevent the abuse of these privileges in any manner whatever and more especially for the purpose of carrying on an unauthorised fishery or an illegal trade.

100

With respect to any difficulties which may arise in carrying the convention into effect His Royal Highness relies entirely upon your discretion for adopting the most conciliatory line of conduct towards the inhabitants of the United States giving to them on all occasions the full benefits of a liberal construction of the treaty but always guarding against any invasion by them of the privileges exclusively reserved to His Majesty's subjects.

If any difficulties should occur you will communicate them to me with every necessary detail and I will not fail to take the earliest opportunity of submitting them to the Prince Regent for His Royal Highness's further consideration.

I have the honour to be &c

BATHURST.

No. 44.-1819, September 17: Extract from Letter from Mr. Rush (at London) to the Secretary of State.

*

Lord Castlereagh came to town on the 15th instant, and granted me an interview yesterday on the business of the West Indian trade. Holding in his hands the proposals I had submitted, his Lordship premised that he thought it would perhaps be best for him to answer them in the same general way that the British articles, submitted through my predecessor in 1817, had been answered; that is, not in any formal manner, but merely by a word of conversation with me. I said that I was sure that the form of the answer would make no difference; its transmission to my Government, in whatever mode his Lordship might be pleased to convey it to me, would doubtless effect every substantial purpose.

In the answer there was no hesitation. Our proposals, he said, were not of a nature to form the basis of any agreement between the two countries. They would effect an entire subversion of the British colonial system; from this system they were not prepared to depart. Their colonies were, in many respects, burdensome, and even liable to involve the country in wars. Garrisons, and other establishments, were constantly maintained in them, at a heavy charge. In return, it was just that they should be encumbered with regulations, the operation of which might help to meet, in part, the expenses which they created. The great principle of these regulations was known to be the reservation of an exclusive right to the benefit of all their trade-a principle, of which the free ports Acts had, it was true, produced some relaxation; but it had never been the intention of this Government to do anything more than offer to us a participation in these Acts. Some modifications of them would have been acquiesced in, suggested by local causes, and an anxious desire that our two countries might come to an understanding on this part of their intercourse. But to break down the system was no part of their plan. Our proposals, therefore, could not be accepted. Such were his remarks.

I observed, that to break down the system was not our aim. All that we desired was, that the trade, as far as it was gone into at all, should be open to the vessels of both nations upon precisely equal terms. If the system fell by such an arrangement, it was an incident, and only showed how difficult it seemed to render its long continuance consistent with a proper measure of commercial justice towards us.

So broad and unequivocal was his Lordship's refusal, that it seemed almost superfluous to ask him to be more particular; yet, perceiving in me a wish to be made acquainted rather more specially with the objections, he said that he would not scruple to mention them without, however, entering into details, for which he was not prepared, and which had been amply unfolded on both sides during the negotiation this time twelvemonth. The objections were threefold. First, we asked an enumeration, by name, of all the ports in the West Indies that we desired should be open to our vessels; secondly, that the trade between the United States and the British colonies on the continent of America, and with Bermuda, should be confined within the same limits as that between the United States and the