228 



the province the right to close a passage which has been freely and in- 

 disputably used bv the citizens of the United States since the year 

 1783. It is impossible, moreover, to conceive how the use on the part 

 of the United States, common, it is believed, to all other nations, can 

 in any manner conflict with the letter or spirit of the existing treaty 

 stipulations. The undersigned would, thcreti^re, fain hope that her 

 Majesty's government would be disposed to meet, as far as practicable, 

 the wishes of the American government in the accomplishing, in the 

 fullest and most liberal manner, the objects which both governments 

 had in view in entering into the conventional arrangement of 1818. 

 He has accordinglv been instructed to bring the whole subject under 

 the consideration of the British government, and to remonstrate on the 

 part of this government against the illegal and vexatious proceedings 

 of the authorities of Nova Scotia against the citizens of the United 

 States engaged in the fisheries, and to request that measures may be 

 forthwith adopted by the British government to remedy the evil arising 

 out of the misconstruction, on the part of the provincial authorities, of 

 their conventional engagements, and prevent the possibility of the re- 

 currence of similar acts. The undersigned renews to Lord Palmer- 

 ston, &c. 



''A. STEVENSON''^ j 

 " 32, Upper Grosvenor street, , 



''March 21, 1841." 



This despatch was transmitted to the Secretary for the Colonies on 

 the 2d of April, and (seven days later) a copy of it was sent to Lord 

 Falkland, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, with a request that 

 his lordship would make immediate inquiry into the allegations con- 

 tained in it, and furnish the Colonial Office with a detailed report on 

 the subject, for the information of her Majesty's government. On the 

 28th of the same month, Lord Falkland wrote to Lord John Russell, 

 that " The greatest anxiety is felt by the inhabitants of this province 

 that the convention with the Americans, signed at London on the 

 20th October, 1818, should be strictly enforced; and it is hoped that 

 the consideration of the report may induce your lordship to exert 

 your influence in such a manner as to lead to the augmentation of the 

 •force (a single vessel) now engaged in protecting the fisheries on the 

 Banks of Newfoundland, and the south shore of Labrador, and the em- 

 ployment, in addition, of one or two steamers for that purpose. 



" The people of this colony have not been wanting in efforts to re- 

 press the incursions of the natives of the United States upon their 

 fishing grounds, but have fitted out with good effect some small armed 

 vessels, adapted to follow trespassers into shoal water, or chase them 

 on the seas;" and that, "finding their own means inadequate to the 

 suppression of this evil, the Nova Scotians earnestly entreat the further 

 intervention and protection of the mother country. " 



His lordship's letter enclosed a copy of a report of a committee 

 on the fisheries of Nova Scotia, which had been adopted by the House 

 of Assembly, and a "case" stated, at the request of that body, "for 

 the purpose of obtaining the opinion of the law officers of the crown 

 in England." The preamble of the latter document recites the rights 



