244 



position, may properly be considered as included within the British 

 possessions. 



"Her Majesty's government must still maintain — and in this view they 

 are fortified by high legal authority — that the Bay of Fundy is right- 

 fully claimed by Great Britain, as a bay within the meaning of the 

 treaty of 1818. And they equally maintain the position which was laid 

 down in the note of the undersigned, dated the 15th of April last, 

 that, with regard to the other ba\^s on the British American coasts, no 

 United States fisherman has, under that convention, the right to fi.sh 

 within three miles of the entrance of such bays as designated by a line 

 drawn from headland to headland at that entrance. 



"But while her Majesty's government still feel themselves bound to 

 maintain these positions as a matter of right, the}'' are nevertheless not 

 insensible to the advantages which would accrue to both countries from 

 a relaxation of the exercise of that right; to the United States as con- 

 ferring a material benefit on their fishing trade ; and to Great Britain 

 and the United States, conjointly and equally, b}' the removal of a fer- 

 tile source of disagi^eement between them. 



" Her Majesty's government are also anxious, at the same time that 

 they uphold the just claims of the British crown, to evince by every 

 reasonable concession their desire to act liberally and amicably towards 

 the United Stares. 



" The undersigned has accordingly much pleasure in announcing to 

 Mr. Everett the determination to which her Majesty's government have 

 come, to relax in favor of the United States fishermen that right which 

 Great Britain has hitherto exercised, of excluding those fishermen from 

 the British portion of the Bay of Fundy, and they are prepared to di- 

 rect their colonial authorities to allow henceforward the United States 

 fishermen to pursue their avocations in any part of the Bay of Fund}^ 

 provided they do not approach, except in the cases specified in the 

 treaty of 1818, within three miles of the entrance of any bay on the 

 coast of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. 



" In thus communicating to Mr. Everett the liberal intentions of her 

 Majesty's government, the undersigned desires to call Mr. Everett's at- 

 tention to the fact that the produce of the labor of the British colonial 

 fishermen is at the present moment excluded by prohibitory duties on 

 the part of the United States from the markets of that country ; and 

 the undersigned would submit to I\fr. Everett that the moment at which 

 the British government are makino: a liberal concession to United 

 States trade, might well be deemed favorable for a counter concession 

 on the part of" the United States to British trade, by the reduction of 

 the duties which operate so piejudicially to the interest of the British 

 coloniid fishermen. 



"Tlie undersigned has the honor to renew to Mr. Everett the assu- 

 rances of his high consideration." 



Mr. Everett rejoined : 



" The undersigned, Envo}- Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 

 of the United States of America, has the honor to acknowledge the re- 

 ceipt of a note of the 10th instant from the Earl of Aberdeen, her 

 Majest3^'s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in reply to 



