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OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS AND THE FOREIGN OFFICE.'

EXHIBIT 372.

Draft of Instructions.2

It being highly desirable that the conditions of Peace which the Commissioners are authorized to negotiate should not only be such as to put at rest as much as possible the many altercations and disputes which have from time to time taken place between the two nations respecting their respective rights & Boundaries but that they should so establish the boundaries as not to have in future the Canadas exposed to invasion from the United States, a precaution become the more necessary as the subjugation of those provinces has been the declared object of that Government. It is necessary to instruct the Commissioners with respect to those points on which it is most essential to come to an amicable explanation and distinct arrangement.

During the course of the War with France discussions have arisen respecting the claims which it has been understood that the American Government have brought forward with regard to the extent of their maritime jurisdiction from their coasts. On this point an explanation is desirable. The Commissioners are author

ized to express to the American Commissioners the wish of the British Government to agree upon any reasonable distance within which the Maritime jurisdiction of the United States shall be considered as confined it being always understood that the maritime jurisdiction shall be reciprocal as to the respective coasts of the contracting parties.

The doubts which have arisen respecting the river St. Croix have been so happily adjusted after a full discussion by the two Governments in the year 1798 that nothing more will be necessary in that particular than to insert totidem verbis the declaration made by the joint Commissioners in that year.

'See Appendix, Vol. II, p. 500, et seq. 2Foreign Office, America, Vol. 102.

The islands in Passamaquaddie Bay have been long the subject of discussion. It is however clear that by the Treaty of 1783 they were excluded from the Territory of the United States; the second Article of that Treaty specially excepting from the Territory of the United States all such islands as then were or as theretofore had been within the limits of the Province of Nova Scotia & it having been proved that those islands were and always had been considered as forming part of that Province.

Doubts have also arisen with respect to the boundary of the Province of Maine and in order to put them at rest it is proposed that the 47th parallel of Latitude shall be considered as that boundary from the point where the present boundary line as claimed by the American Government intersects that parallel.

Fort Niagara being the point from whence an attack against Upper Canada can be made with the greatest facility and effect it is necessary that that Fort together with the adjoining territory should be retained by Great Britain.

The British Government are willing on behalf of the Indian nations in alliance with them to consent to the adoption of the River Wabash and the Miami of the Lake as the boundary between the territory of the United States and that of the Indian nations. But in consideration of the extension of territory which the United States will thereby obtain beyond that possessed by them in the year 1783 and in order to protect the necessary communication with the Indian Nations. The island and Fort of Michillimackinac shall be retained by Great Britain. It shall be moreover agreed that the boundary hereby assigned to the Indian Nations shall be guaranteed to them and that neither of the contracting parties shall be at liberty to acquire either by purchase or otherwise from any Indian Nation any further Territory or to change existing boundaries without the consent of the other contracting party.

In order to clear up the doubts to which the Treaty of 1783 has given rise with respect to the Western Boundary of the United States as laid down in that Treaty (inasmuch as a line drawn due West from the North Western point of the Lake of the Woods will not as assumed ever intersect the Mississippi). It shall be stipulated that that boundary of the United States shall be a straight line drawn from the North Western point of the Lake of the Woods to the Source of the Mississippi.

. Some such boundary also must be assigned to Louisiana as may exclude the Citizens of the United States from any interference with the British Settlements on the Columbia River.

Although the British Government cannot but be sensible that the renewal of the Treaty of 1783 is liable to many objections on the part of Great Britain and that many advantages would arise from a refusal to renew any part of it, yet being animated with an anxious desire to oppose as few obstacles as possible to the restoration of Amity between the two countries they are willing to renew the said Treaty provided it be distinctly understood that the provisions of the third Article are in no case whatever to be considered as renewed.

The Commissioners will either insert in the body of the Treaty the third Article of the Treaty of 1794 and the explanatory Article of 1796 or concert with the American Commissioners in drawing up a new Article containing the substance of those two Articles as it may be thought best by the American Commissioners.

The American Commissioners must understand that if they are not instructed to enter into negotiation on these points and that in consequence peace cannot be concluded Great Britain is by no means pledged not to make further demands if the events of the War for the protraction of which the American Government will be alone responsible should authorize demands more favorable to the security of the British possessions in North America.

N. B. In order to put an end to the Jealousies which may arise by the Construction of Ships of War on the Lakes, it should be proposed that the two Contracting Parties should reciprocally bind themselves not to construct any Ships of War on any of the Lakes: and should entirely dismantle those which are now in Commission, or are preparing for Service.

EXHIBIT 373.

The Commissioners to Lord Castlereagh.1

No. I.

GHENT, August 9, 1814.

MY LORD: We have the honour to acquaint Your Lordship that we arrived in this City on the 6th Instant. We lost no time

1Foreign Office, America, Vol. 102.

in communicating our arrival to the American Commissioners, and in proposing a Conference with a view to that preliminary information which we were directed by our Instructions to obtain.

The first Conference took place yesterday, when the full powers of each side were produced, and the Copies of them respectively exchanged. The Copy received from the American Commissioners we beg leave to inclose. The Conference was opened by us with an expression of the anxiety of His Majesty's Government by arrangements of a permanent kind to restore the relations of peace between the two Nations upon terms advantageous and honourable to both-An anxiety unabated by any events which had recently happened in Europe. We stated our own desire to give effect to the wishes of our Government by conducting the Negociation in the most frank and conciliatory manner. After some few observations of this nature we proceeded to state the points upon which we considered it probable that our future discussions might turn, viz:

1. The forcible seizure of mariners from on board merchant ships on the high Seas, and, as in necessary connection with it the allegiance due to the King of Great Britain from all his native subjects.

In submitting this as the first topic we stated that we had no intention of offering any specific proposition on this subject. We did it because the subject had been put forward by the American Government in such a manner as led us to suppose that they would make it a principal topic of discussion.

2. The engagements of Alliance which Great Britain had entered into with the Indian Nations during the war rendered it incumbent upon her to provide for their permanent tranquility and security by including them in any Treaty of Peace made between Great Britain and America, and, their permanent peace and security could not be provided for unless the limits of their territories were strictly defined. We added that Great Britain considered a satisfactory arrangement on this head as the sine qua non of any Treaty of Peace.

3. A revision of the boundary between His Majesty's Territories in America and those of the United States, not upon any principle of conquest or acquisition, but upon that of mutual advantage and security.

In throwing out these as the topics of discussion which had suggested themselves to us, and in requesting to be informed whether the American Commissioners were instructed to enter upon them, we expressed our willingness to receive from them any other topics for discussion which they might consider material, and should they consider as immaterial any of the topics so thrown out by us, their statement to that effect might possibly tend to prevent fruitless discussions. We then communicated to them the intention of His Majesty's Government not to renew the privileges derived under the Treaty of 1783 with respect to the North American Fisheries, not as necessarily forming a topic of discussion, but as a point upon which we in candour thought it proper to afford them information in this early stage of our proceedings. The American Commissioners having requested time for consultation together as to the answer to be returned to our enquiries, the Conference was accordingly adjourned to this day. It began by a distinct communication from them, that upon two of the points suggested by us as topics for discussion, viz: the 1st and 3rd they were prepared with ample instructions from their Government, but that with respect to the second, viz: a defined boundary to the Indian Territories, they had no instructions whatever, that they were equally uninstructed on the subject of the fisheries -and that there were other points not specified by us which the of the United States considered it material to discuss, and upon which they had received authority and instructions to conclude an arrangement.

These points were. 1. The Law of the Blockade, and some definition of Blockade, and also the general subject of belligerent and neutral Rights.

2. The claims which the United States had against Great Britain on the ground of Captures made previous to the commencement of the War, and as to captures, or some particular captures made during its continuance.

3. The regulation of the commerce of the two Countries.

Upon this statement it appeared to us, material to ascertain how far the American Commissioners, although not specially instructed as to the question of Indian Boundary, felt themselves at liberty under any general discretion to conclude a provisional Article on this important point, Our Enquiries were therefore

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