r Monroe’s earnest and anxious desire to cultivate the most
friendly and harmonious intercourse with Great-Britain. He said that the
same and an equally earnest disposition and desire existed in this
Country to cultivate and improve the friendly relations with the United
States; as an earnest of which he should in the course of two or three
days send me a Note in answer to that which I had addressed to him a few
days since in relation to the fisheries— He asked me, if I was informed
of the state of the Negotiation upon the subject in America. I told him
I had received copies of the correspondence concerning it, which had
passed between Mr Monroe and Mr Bagot.
He then recapitulated the substance of it, and said that Mr Bagot has been authorized in July last to
offer a certain extent of Coast being part of the British Territories in
North America, for the accommodation of the American fishermen; and if
that should be declined, to offer another portion, and eventually both
of them. Neither of the propositions had however been found acceptable;
but in February, Mr Monroe had suggested
that the President would be prepared to make a proposition on his part
which he hoped would conciliate the views and interests of both parties.
Mr Bagot was not then authorized to
receive this proposition; but the authority to that effect had now been
sent to him. He had been empowered at the commencement of the
Negotiation to suspend the orders to the British Naval Commander on the Station—to prevent the
American fishermen from frequenting the British Coast, and had
accordingly written to him to suspend it. After the failure of his
propositions, he had notified to the naval commander that the suspension
of the order was to cease, and the order was accordingly now in force.
But as the President having now a full knowledge of the views of this
Government had intimated the disposition to make a proposal which would
conciliate the interests of both parties; and as a signal proof of the
desire of the British Government to cultivate the most friendly
relations with the Administration of the new President, they had
determined to renew the suspension of the Order to the Admiral during
the present Season, and it would be immediately sent out. He read me the
Note to that effect which he said he should be authorized to send me in
the course of two or three days— He said he would take the Commands of
the Prince Regent as to the time for the delivery of my Letter of
recall— I then mentioned my Note to him upon Crosby’s case, and told him I had
some other papers besides those I had sent him concerning it—among the
rest a written opinion of Mr Emmett, a person known to
him perhaps under unfortunate circumstances, but now one of the most
eminent lawyers at the Bar, in the United States— He said, yes; he had
known him; and he was one of the most eloquent men he ever had known. I
told him that the argument in the opinion was in perfect coincidence
with that in Mr
Reeves’s pamphlets although written before they were
published, and this agreement between two lawyers so entirely different
from each other in all their political opinions formed of 183itself a strong presumption in favour of the soundness of
their conclusions. I observed that I thought the principle would be of
great importance, by its influence upon the intercourse between the two
Nations, and mentioned again the hardship of Crosby’s case, who after
having been prevented by the War from entering his appeal to the King in
Council from the decision of the Court in Jamaica, within the limited
term of one year had also been disappointed in the hope that the
principle would have been arranged at the Negotiation for the Peace.
Perhaps all that would be necessary for his case would be to restore to
him the right of entering his appeal. Lord Castlereagh said that could
not be done without an Act of Parliament. I said I thought there was a
discretionary power in the Court of Appeal to extend the time within
which Appeals are admitted— He replied that in Admiralty cases they had;
because being governed by the rules of the Law of Nations, they were
brought within the reach of the king’s Prerogative— But in cases
depending upon the municipal Law, there was no such power— He said he
had not seen my Note upon the subject, and supposed Mr
Hamilton, upon receiving it, seeing that it must be
referred to the Law-Officers of the Crown, had sent it immediately to
them. He likewise told me that there would be sent to Mr Bagot to be communicated to the American
Government a full statement of all the disorders and inconveniences
which had been experienced in consequence of the fishing rights of
Americans in the British jurisdiction in North America; to shew that it
was not any commercial jealousy, or any wish to disturb our people in
the enjoyment of their fisheries, that induced the British Government to
adhere to this object, but the absolute necessity of protecting their
own territorial authority.— On leaving Lord Castlereagh’s, I called at
Lord Anson’s in St. James’s Square, to see Mr Coke of
Norfolk, but he had left town this Morning, for Norwich, to attend an
Election of a member of Parliament for the County of Norfolk, which is
about to take place. On returning home I found a Dr. Busby, who kept me more
than an hour, with the account of an invention which he pretends to have
ready to be carried into execution, of a machine or Carriage to travel
or to transport merchandize by land, with a velocity equal to one
hundred miles an hour. A machine perfectly simple in its construction,
not expensive, and requiring only a road analogous to the iron railways
now used in this Country, to be carried into effect. The secret he said
was yet entirely his own; and he came to enquire to what an extent such
an invention would be useful in the United States. I told him I thought
it scarcely possible to estimate the extent to which such an invention
would be valuable in every civilized Country; but there was none where
it would be more valuable than the United States, in proportion to the
population and extent of the Country. He enquired whether the Government
would be disposed to make the acquisition of such an invention; it would
be of the highest utility in War; and he would offer it in preference to
the United States, because he adored liberty, and they were the only
free government upon the globe. I replied that as the invention was not
of a nature to be kept secret, and required special roads to be made
upon which the machine must run, to purchase the invention for practical
purposes would transcend the powers of the Government of the U.S. but if
he was so disposed he could easily obtain a patent for it there provided
it should not be previously made known here or elsewhere— He left me
after much explanation of the manner in which his machine would move. He
is one of that numerous class of inventors who are mad with regard to
their main objects and sober in all the calculations of detail— Who
waste a world of learning and ingenuity in undertaking to perform
impossibilities— He was scarcely gone when Sir John Cox Hippisley came in. He made some enquiries of
Smith concerning an old friend
of his Mr
Cruger formerly member of Parliament for Bristol, and now
living at New-York.— He enquired also concerning the Laws of the United
States relative to Roman Catholics; and promised to send me a supplement
to the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, on that subject,
and a second copy of the whole, for the American Government. He said the
British Ministers on the Continent wrote that the Report was in high
request at all the Courts, and had become a sort of manual, at Berlin
and Vienna, upon their relations with the Court of Rome— I told him that
I had perceived on looking into the Report that the Committee had done
me the honour to notice and to quote from a publication which had
appeared in my name: the Letters on Silesia, for which I offered him my
best acknowledgments— Mr Cook was here, and dined with us; he went with Smith
immediately after dinner to the Play. I went to hear the debate in the
House of Commons— The subject upon which I found them engaged was a Bill
for the abolition of two Chief Justices in Eyre, which are Sinecures.
This Bill was founded upon the Report of a Ministerial Committee on the
revenues and expenditure of the 184Country. There
was no opposition to the Bill; but much discussion upon the Report of
the Committee— The House were in a Committee of the whole and Lord
Castlereagh was speaking when I went in. He was successively followed,
by Messrs.
J. P. Grant, Huskisson, Newport, Marryatt, Freemantle, Robinson, Lord Milton, Davies
Gilbert and Tierney; of whom Grant and Tierney, were the most fluent
and impressive Speakers. when the debate concluded, and the house
resumed the subject, I came away; about eleven. The house sat nearly two
hours longer. I received this Morning Letters from Coll.
Aspinwall, with explanations, about a Sailor, named
Mitchell, whom I sent to him last
Saturday from R. Birnie the
Bow-street Justice of the Peace; and from Jas Maury with his
accounts for four Months; and also three Packets of Despatches from the
Department of State—two of them printed Documents, and the third,
Duplicates of J. Graham’s Letter of
6. March, with Copies of the two Resolutions of the Senate.
John Quincy Adams Digital Diary
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