298 



wick, Price Edward Island, and Canada, up to the time ot the Toronto 



agreement in 18-51, remained ahnost passive spectators ofthc; belligerent 

 attitude of their sister coloii}'^ of Nova Scotia. The subject of" Ameri- 

 can aggressions" — as we have shown — has been one of profound in- 

 terest to the last mentioned dependency of the crown for a long period. 

 To find commiseration neither at home nor abroad, is a grievance hard 

 to be borne. To show, year after year, and for an entire generation, in 

 petitions to the throne, in legislative reports, and in newspaper essaj'-s, 

 that the most ruinous consequences had resulted, and would continue 

 to follow the permission to Americans to pass through the Strait of 

 Canso, and to fish in the bays of British America, and yet, after all, to 

 awaken no sympathy on the part of fellow-colonists, and no determined 

 action on the part of the ministers of the Queen, is a misfortune which 

 even the aggressors themselves are bound to appreciate. 



But I may say that fishermen, without treaty stipulations to favor 

 and protect them, have sometimes fared far better than it is possible 

 for ours to do, if the views of the crown lawyers are carried out in 

 tlieir most obvious sense. 



The fishermen of almost every civilized nation have pursued their 

 business either on implied or written sanctions. The}^ have been per- 

 mitted to follow their calhng even in war. The hostile relations be- 

 tween England and Holland — though the ocean was stained with the 

 blood of the subjects of each for several generations — did not, exce|>t 

 in particular cases and for short periods, break up the Dutch fishery on 

 the English coast. In the war of our own Revolution, "rebels" though 

 we were, Berkeley, of the Scarborough frigate, while occupying tlie 

 Piscataqua, allowed the fishermen of that river free pass, out and in ; 

 and so, too, Admiral Digby, moved with compassion for the sufierings 

 of the people of Nantucket, gave them written permits to resunte 

 whaling; and the fact that a vessel* thus protected b\' his hum:mity 

 was the first to bear our new-born flag to the Thames, and to draw 

 out all London to see it, will be remembered, perhaps, when tlie 

 records of battles shall be torn and scattered. 



Nor did the war of 1812, with all the desolation and bad feeling 

 which it caused, form an exception to the rule so commonly observed. 

 I refi'r i()r instances to the passports of Admiral Hotham to the people 

 of Nantucket ; to the permissions gi-anted by Sir George Collit^r to all 

 fishing-boats and vessels under thirty tons; and lo the ordinary and 

 almost universal practice of British commanders along our coast, of 

 allowing iIk* Irdving offish to be carried to our towns and cities, and to 

 be consumed fresh. And yet, our public and private armed ships, as 

 these very officers knew, were manned in a good measure by the class 

 of men to whom these indulgences were granted. How many in tlie 

 same service with Digby, Hotham, and Collier arc there nuw in com- 

 mission, who will "crowd sail alow and aloft" to hunt up and drive 

 out such of our fishermen as shall continue to visit the "bays" inter- 



*IIer arrivfil was announced in Parliament. Mr. Hammet said ho 'begged leave to in- 

 form the House of a very recent and extraordinary occurrence." After stating the nam^— 

 "the Bivltiird, Moores, master" — he adds, she " wears tho rebd colors, and belongs to ih» 

 island of .Nantucket, in Massachusetts." 



