275 



There is now but little to add to complete a record of the more im- 

 portnnt events connected with the history of this controversy. 



The Queen of England, in her speech at the opening of Parliament, 



8. Resolved, That the cession of the Aroostook territory, and the free navigation of the St. 

 John, the right of registry in colonial ports, and the free admission of the productions of the 

 United States into British America at revenue duties only, have been followed by no cor- 

 responding relaxation of the commercial system of the United States which would justify a 

 further sacrifice of colonial interests. 



9. Rcsohcd, That while more than one half of the seacoast of the republic bounds slave 

 States, whose laboring population cannot be trusted upon the sea, the coasts of British America 

 include a frontage upon the ocean greater than the whole Atlantic seaboard of the United 

 States. The richest fisheries in the world surround these coasts. Coal, which the Americans 

 must bring with them, should they provoke hostilities, abounds at the most convenient points. 

 Two millions of adventurous and industrious people already inhabit these provinces, and the 

 citizens of Halifax would indeed deplore the deliberate sacrifice of their interests, by any 

 weak concession to a power which ever seconds the efforts of astute diplomacy by appeals to 

 the angry passions — the full force of which has been twice on British America within the 

 memory of this generation, and, in a just cause, with the aid of the mother country, coiUd be 

 broken again. 



ADDRESS. 



To his Excellency Colonel Sir J. Gaspard Lemarcfiast, Knight, and Knight Commander 

 of the Orders of St. Ferdinand and of Charles the Third of Spain, Lieutenant Governor 

 and Commander-in-chief in and over her Majesty's province of Nova Scotia and its depend- 

 eacies, Chancellor of the same, &c. 



May it please your Excellency: We, her Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the mayor 

 and aldennen of the city, and representatives of the city and county of Halifax, respectfully 

 request that your excellency will be pleased to transmit, by this night's mail, to tlie right hon- 

 orable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, to be laid at the toot of the throne, a dutiful 

 and loyal petition, imauimously adopted this day by a very large and influential meeting of our 

 fellow-citizens, held in the Province Hall. 



We also pray that the resolutions, a copy of which is annexed, and which were passed with 

 equal unanimity, may be also forwarded to the right honorable the Colonial Secretary. 



This petition, ajid these resolutions, have been adopted in wmsequence of the alarming in- 

 telligence having been received that negotiations are pending between the British government 

 and the American minister in London, for surrendering to the citizens of the United States 

 the right of fishing on the coasts and within the bays of the British North American colonies, 

 from which they are now excluded by the convention of 1818. We entreat your excellency, 

 as the Queen's representative in this province, to convey to her Majesty's government a strong 

 remonstrance against any such concession of the fishing rights as appears to be contemplated. 



The immediate departure of this mail will not permit our detailing all the disastrous results 

 to be apprehended from the concessions now required by the American government, but we 

 must beg that you wUl assure her Majesty's ministers that the information just received ha.s 

 occasioned the most intense an.'ciety throughout the comminiity, it being evident that our 

 rights, once conceded, can never be regained. 



By the tenns of the convention of 1818 the United States expressly renounced any right of 

 fishing within three marine miles from the coasts and shores of these colonies, or of entering 

 their bays, creeks, and harbors, except for shelter, or for wood and water. 



If this restriction be removed, it must be obvious to your excellency that it will be i^npos- 

 sible to prevent the Americans from using our fishing grounds as freely as our own fishermen. 

 They wiJl be permitted to enter our bays and harbors, where, at all times, unless armed ves- 

 sels are presciit in every harbor, they will not only fish in common with our own fishermen, but 

 they will bring with them contraband goods to exchange with the inhabitants for fish, to the 

 great injury of colonial traders and loss to the public revenue. The fish obtained by this il- 

 licit traffic win then be taken to the United States, where they will bo entered as the produce ■ 

 of the American fisheries, while those exported from the colonies in a legal manner are sub- 

 ject to oppresvsive duties. 



We need not remind your excellency that the equivalent said to have been proposed — that 

 of allowing our vessels to fish in the waters of the United States — is utterly valueless, and un- 

 worthy of a moment's consideration. 



We would fiiiu hope that the reports which have appeared in the public press respecting •. 

 the pending negotiations between the two governments are without any good foimdatioa. 



