is a chapter in the second volamé a " Twenty years of Cou which gives an account. of the fishery disputes between England and the United States from the point of of the writer. It requires to be taken with a good deal of sult, like every thing from the pen or lips of Mr. Blaine, but we have no ranson to doubt that it gives the view held by a number of his countrymen of their rights in this matter, and is therefore worth considering. When the independence of the Colonies was recognised in 1782, the provisions in regard to two subjects were held by both Governments to be final and perpetual, one being the ter" ritory oonoeded to the United States and the other the right to the fisheries, And in the definite treaty of 1783 it was provided thut the privilege which rabitauts of the Ueled States bad now known as the Dominion vf Canada and the island of Newfoundland" should be continued to them.
But after the war of 1812 the tors olnimed that the war had paton end to all existing trouties, and that censes quently the Bshery righto of the United States had censed, The direct purpose of this, Mr, Blaine aaye, was obvious. The treaty of 1782 declared that "the igation of the Mississipi river from its source to the ocean shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and to the citizens of the United States," bat subsequent surveys of the course of the Mississipi and the purchase of Louisiana had "given our Government the control of the mouth of the river, Henoo the privilege of navigating the Misei 80 earnestly desired by the Government—could not be insisted on, since the river from ite source to the sea was wholly wit 10 territory of the United States." Mr, Blaine cone siders that the claim of Great Britain to the free navigation of the Mississipi was untenable, but he holds that the rights of the United States to share in the Bi fisheries continued to exist and in this part of hie chapter ho is more n special pleader than an hike torical writer. Clearly, if the Treaty of 1782 gave rights to both Governments, one onse, because the United States had acquired way and another more territory bordering on the Mississipi than she had when the treaty was made, In 1818 another treaty oovoernin, the fisheries was concluded in London, by which, Mr, Binine says, the felling rights of the i States were seriously and needlessly diminished. Yet at that time the State' Department was under the charge of Mr. John Quinoy Adams, a gentleman not the least likely thing his country could justly retain, and the United States negotiatora in London were, men of established reputation for diplomatic ability and patriotic zeal. These gentle. men " renounced forever"—tl Mr. Blaine', who is strong in that form of argament—any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inbabitants thereof to take, dry, or cure fish on or within three wauve miles of avy
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.