242 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tainin" six members of the Moderate Left, four 

 from the Right, four from the Extreme Lett, 

 and one from the Winther group. In order to 

 help the island of Santa Cruz to recover from 

 the late insurrection, the Government intro- 

 duced a bill granting to the island a loan of 

 1 200 000 crowns free of interest up to De- 

 cember 31, 1880. The Left refused to sanction 

 this, as they claimed that the insurrection was 

 due' to the mismanagement of the colony by 

 the colonists, and that the latter were there- 

 fore not entitled to aid. The lower House 

 was consequently dissolved by the King on De- 

 cember 10th, and on the 13th a royal rescript 

 was published ordering new elections to take 

 place on January 3d. Manifestoes were at once 

 published by the Radical and the Moderate 

 parties, the former signed by 30, the latter by 

 36 deputies. The former expresses the hope 

 that in the new Chamber the same unity and 

 vigor may prevail as in the old ; the latter con- 

 fines itself to the expectation that the Govern- 

 ment will act in conformity with the represen- 

 tatives of the people in case the latter should 

 decline the West Indian bill in its new shape. 

 The Government, in the mean while, by tele- 

 graph authorized the Governor of Santa Cruz 

 to advance an amount not exceeding 500,000 

 crowns for the restoration of the destroyed 

 sugar- works. 



In its foreign relations the Danish Govern- 

 ment observed the strictest neutrality. At the 

 beginning of the year the official papers em- 

 phatically denied the rumor that the Govern- 

 ment intended to conclude a secret alliance 

 with England and Russia; and, on the ap- 

 proach of the Berlin Congress, they protested 

 no less emphatically against an imputed inten- 

 tion to bring the North Schleswig question be- 

 fore the Congress. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF 

 THE UNITED STATES. The diplomatic cor- 

 respondence of the United States for the year 

 1878 presents few points of special importance. 

 The relations with all countries were uniformly 

 friendly. The payment to Great Britain of 

 the award of the Fisheries Commission, $5,- 

 500,000, was made by the United States Gov- 

 ernment on November 21st. It was accom- 

 panied with a protest, by which it appears 

 that there is still an unsettled difficulty be- 

 tween this country and the Dominion of Can- 

 ada. The following is the official letter : 



LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, | 

 LONDON, November 21. j 



To My Lord: 1 have baen instructed by the Presi- 

 dent of the United States to tender to her Majesty's 

 Government the sum of $5,500,000 in gold coin, this 

 being the sum named by two concurring members of 

 the Fisheries Commission lately sitting at Halifax, 

 under the authority imparted thereto by the treaty 

 of Washington, to be paid by the Government of the 

 United States to the Government of her Britannic 

 Majesty. I am also instructed by the President to 

 nay that such payment is made upon the ground 

 that the United States Government desires to place 

 the maintenance of good faith in treaties and the 

 security of the value of arbitration between nations 

 above all question in its relation with her Britannic 



Majesty's Government as with all other Govern- 

 ments. Under this motive the Government of the . 

 United States desires to separate the question of 

 withholding payment from the considerations touch- 

 ing the obligations of this payment which have been 

 presented to her Majesty'** Government in corre- 

 spondence, and which it reserves and insists upon. 

 I am, besides, instructed by the President to say 

 that the Government of the United States deems it 

 of the greatest importance to the common and 

 friendly interests of the two Governments in all fu- 

 ture questions relating to the North American fish- 

 eries, that her Britannic Majesty's Government 

 should be distinctly advised that the Government of 

 the United States can not accept the result of the 

 Halifax Commission as furnishing any just measure 

 of a participation by our citizens in the inshore tisl^ 

 eries of the British provinces; it protests against 

 the actual payment now made being considered by 

 her Majesty's Government as in any sense an acqui- 

 escence in such measure, or as warranting any infer- 



1 I have, etc., JOHN WELSH. 



The views of the Government of the Unit- 

 ed States on the award of the Halifax Fish- 

 eries Commission were stated by Secretary 

 Evarts in a letter to Minister Welsh. He says 

 that if the award in respect of the fisheries 

 had relation only to the sum of payment in- 

 volved, considerable as that is, this Govern- 

 ment might prefer to waive any discusssion 

 which could effect the continuing and perma- 

 nent interest of two countries. The United 

 States, in the fishery articles of the treaty of 

 Washington, did not intend to, and do not, 

 waive or curtail in the least the construction 

 of fishery and appurtenant privileges accorded 

 in the first article of the convention of 1818, 

 as claimed by them, and actually passed and 

 enjoyed by them, under such claim at and be- 

 fore the negotiation of the treaty of Washing- 

 ton. Neither the protocols of conferences of 

 the Joint High Commissioners, nor the text of 

 the treaty negotiated by them, indicate any 

 intention of submitting to the interpretation 

 of the Halifax Commission a degree of privi- 

 lege accorded to the United States by the con- 

 vention of 1818, and it protests against any 

 implication from the magnitude of award of 

 the Halifax Commission, or otherwise from its 

 proceedings under the treaty of Washington, 

 that the United States have sanctioned or ac- 

 quiesced in, or by the payment of that award 

 would sanction or acquiesce in, any lesser 

 measures or privileges secured to the United 

 States under the convention of 1818, than, as 

 is well known to her Majesty's Government, 

 they have always insisted upon. In the next 

 place, the United States did not submit to the 

 Halifax Commission, under the fishery articles 

 of the treaty of Washington, any valuation of 

 any general economy or political advantages 

 which grew out of access to the fishery grounds 

 for the development of mercantile or naval 

 marine, and which therefore it might be ar- 

 gued would be enhanced by adding the area of 

 the inshore fisheries of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence to the fields for that enterprise, from the 

 earliest period open and occupied by the bold 

 and hardy seamen of this country. 



