233 



" I have, therefore, to request that you will present this subject again 

 to the consideration of her Majesty's government by addressing a note 

 to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, remindino; him 

 that the letter of Mr. Stevenson to Lord Palmerston remains unan- 

 swered, and informing him of the anxious desire of the President that 

 proper means should be taken to prevent the possibility of a recurrence 

 of any like cause of complaint." 



Mr. Everett, on the 10th of August of the same year, thus ably and 

 clearly stated his views :* 



"The undersigned. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 

 tiary of the United States of America, has the honor to transmit to the 

 Earl of Aberdeen, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs, the accompanying papers relating to the seizure on the 10th of 

 May last, on the coast of Nova Scotia, by an officer of the provincial 

 customs, of the American fishing schooner Washington, of Newbury- 

 port, in the State of Massachusetts, for an alleged infraction of the 

 stipulations of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818, between 

 tlie United States and Great Britain. 



*' It appears from the deposition of William Bragg, a seaman on 

 board the Washington, that at the time of her seizure she was not within 

 ten miles of the coast of Nova Scotia. By the first article of the con- 

 vention above alluded to, the United States renounce any liberty here- 

 tofore enjoyed or claimed by their inhabitants to take, dry, or cure fish 

 on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts of her Majesty's 

 dominions in America, for which express provision is not made in the 

 said article. This renunciation is the only limitation existing on the 

 right of fishing upon the coasts of her Majesty's dominions in America, 

 secured to the people of the United States by the third article of the 

 treaty of 1783. 



" The right, therefore, of fishing on any part of the coast of Nova 

 Scotia, at a greater distance than three miles, is so plain, that it would 

 be difficult to conceive on what ground it could be drawn in question, 

 had not attempts been already made by the provincial authorities of her 

 Majesty's colonies to interfere with its exercise. These attempts have 

 formed the subject of repeated complaints on the part of the govern- 

 ment of the United States, as will appear from several notes addressed 

 by the predecessor of the undersigned to Lord Palmerston. 



"From the construction attempted to be placed, on former occasions* 

 upon the first article of the treaty of 1818, by the colonial authorities, 

 the undersigned supposes that the 'Washington' was seized because 

 she was found fishing in the Bay of Fundy, and on the ground that the 

 lines within which American vessels are forbidden to fish are to run 

 from headland to headland, and not to follow the shore. It is plain, 

 however, that neither the words nor the spirit of the convention admit 

 of any such construction ; nor, it is believed, was it set up by the pro- 

 vincial authorities for several years after the negotiation of that instru- 

 ment. A glance at the map will show Lord Aberdeen that there is, 

 perhaps, no part of the great extent of the seacoasts of her Majesty's 

 possessions in America in which the right of an American vessel to 



* Executive Document 100, page 120. 



