276 



November, 1852, remarked that " the present and well-grounded com- 

 plaints on the part of my North American colonies, of the infraction by 

 the citizens of the United States of the fishery convention of 1818, in- 



We cannot imagine tliat her Majesty's government, after having taken prompt and dedded 

 measures to enforce tin; tiiie constrnction of the treaty, vill ever consent to such modification 

 of its teiTns as will render our highly valued rights a mere privilege to he enjoyed in common 

 with foreigners. 



We therefore pray your excellency to exert all your influence to induce her Majesty's min- 

 isters to stay any further negotiations on this vitally important question until the rights and 

 interests of the inhahitants of this province are more fully inquired into and viBdicated. 



Haiifas, September 2, 1852. 



MEMORIAL. 



To the QHeen's Most Excellent Majesty. 



The Lnmtle memorial of the undersigned, merchants and inhahitants of Halifax and otSer 

 2>arts of Kova 8coria, convcBcd at a public meeting held at Halifax on Thursday, the 2d of 

 tSeptember, iy&2, showeth: 



By the mail recently arrived from England, yonr memorialists have learned with deep eon- 

 .ceru .that it is in contemplation of yonr Majesty's ministers to snrrender to the United States 

 K)f America privileges of fishing on the coasts of yutir Majesty's North American colonies, to 

 which, at present, yonr Majesty'^s subjects are alony entitled. 



Timels uot afforded to enter at large oa this subject, nor is it necessary. Repeatedly have the 

 mtal impoitance of these fisheries, and Ehe necess?ry of preserving unimpaired the restrictions 

 against cuieroaehment by which they are gtjarded, been urged on the imperial govemmeat. It 

 was believ,ed the time liad long passed when a qoestion could be raised oa either of these 

 poiufcs. To stimulate imperial aid in protecting and maintaining acknowledged rights was all, 

 it was imagined, that was required of the colonies, and they fondly trusted this consummation 

 had beeu attained, when, in the preserst season, your Majesty's war steamers came commis- 

 sioned OQ this service. 



Little, may it please your Majesty, was rt anticipated these were to be the precursors of a 

 transfer alike injurious and humiliating to yoar loyal colonial subjects, or for this aid that so 

 large a price would be demanded. 



May it please your Majesty, when the United States, by the treaty of 1818, solemnly reawnnced 

 forever the right to iish within three marine miles of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors of 

 certain portions of your North American territory, the stipnhitiou was neither extraordinary 

 nor extravagant. Itisimatter of common history, that sea-girt nations claim peculiar rights 

 within a league of their shores; and equally plain that, according to the maxims of interna- 

 tional law, this claim is defined by lines drawn not only between the formations of bays, but 

 from the headlands of indentations of the coast. 



But had it been otherwise, the stipulation was part of a general treaty, in which concession 

 on one side may be presumed to have been compensated by concession on the other, and loss 

 in one particular by gain in another; and the engagement was made in language too explicit, 

 and in terms too well vuiderstood, to admit the possibility of misapprehension. 



Shall nations, may it please your Majesty, be absolved from the obligation of their contracts, 

 and complaints be respected whea made by a people, which, between individuals, would be 

 treated as puerile? 



If conciliation, irrespective of rigiit, be the principle on which is to be withdrawn the re- 

 striction against the entry of Americans into the bays and indentations of the coast to fish, 

 limiting them alone to the distance of three miles from the shore, the concession of the privi- 

 lege tx) fish within this latter distance must equally be granted — as, indeed, has been already 

 urged in the American Congress : the restriction in botli cases rests on the same authority ; 

 and the concession in each woidd be demanded by the same principle. It may not be the 

 proviuceof your Majesty's colonial subjects to suggest how far such a i)rinciple is consistent 

 with national honor and independence : they hiive a right to pray that it be not carried out at 



their exi^ense. , . . , , 



When tlie welfare of the empire is supposed to demand extensive alterations in the laws of 

 trade and navigation, the peculiar interests of the colonies are not pennitted to disturb the gen- 

 eral system by the continuance of conflicting regukliuns, however necessary, from long usage 

 and the competition of fon.ifiners more powerful and more fostered by their own government. 



In the present case, the possession to surrender Is no offspring of artificial arrangements, 

 falling with a complicated iM>licy of which it formed a part. 



No, may it please your Majesty, your loyal subjects in Nova Scotia raise their voice against 

 the injury of m inheritance coiiferred upou your Noitli Auiericau subjects by nature, con- 



