280 THE GROWTH OF CANADA 



vailing, especially in the United States, the 

 significance of every frictional episode was 

 systematically exaggerated, and the permanent 

 diplomatic settlement of all the controversies 

 was prevented. A treaty was actually con 

 cluded, February 15, 1888, the terms of which 

 provided a full and equitable provision for all 

 the doubtful points that had arisen. The 

 Senate of the United States refused to approve 

 it, for reasons which, so far as the public debate 

 on the question may be assumed to reveal them, 

 related much more to President Cleveland s 

 candidacy for re-election than to the merits of 

 the fisheries question. Pending the action of 

 the Senate, a modus vivendi for two years was 

 agreed to by the governments, under the terms 

 of which licenses to trade for fishing-supplies in 

 the British ports were granted for a price to the 

 American fishermen, and they were absolved 

 from burdensome customs regulations. Though 

 the treaty failed, the terms of this modus con 

 tinued to govern the situation by the tacit 

 consent of all the parties concerned, and fur 

 ther trouble was for the time avoided. 



The friction after 1885 over the fisheries had 

 far-reaching effects. It contributed to the de 

 velopment of an anti-British sentiment in the 



