408 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



[Sub-inclosure 1.] 



Collector and Comptroller of Customs to Lord Gosford. 



Customs, 

 Quebec, November 9, 1835. 

 May it please your Excellency : We have the honor to transmit 

 for your excellency's information, a copy of a letter just received 

 from the sub-collector of this department at Gaspe, with reference 

 to certain complaints made against the United States fishermen for 

 encroachment on the limits and otherwise injuring the British fish- 

 eries carried on in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in order that your excel- 

 lency may take such measures therein as the circumstances of the 

 case may appear to your excellency to require. 

 We have the honor, &c. 



Hy. Jessopp, Collector. 

 Charles G. Stewart, Comptroller. 

 His Excellency Earl of Gosford, 



Commander-in-chief, &c, dec, &c. 



[Sub-inclosure 2.] 



The sub-collector of customs at Gaspe to the collector and comptroller 



at Quebec. 



Custom House, 



Gaspe, September 12, 1835. 



Gentlemen: I beg leave to acquaint you that for several years 

 past numerous complaints have been made by those who carry on 

 the fisheries on the shores of the river and gulf of the St. Lawrence, 

 against American fishermen who frequent the fishing banks, for 

 having from time to time encroached their limits, to the serious 

 injury and prejudice of the British merchants or " planters," who 

 have much capital involved in that precarious pursuit. 



The circumstance of immense numbers of United States fishing 

 smacks forming a line and ranging themselves on the banks where 

 the codfish chiefly resort, has been often referred to as a principal 

 cause why the fisheries have visibly retrograded, inasmuch as the 

 waste is thrown overboard in the process of curing, deterring the 

 fish from seeking food at their former summer resorts; but as the 

 convention made in 1818, and ratified by the statute 59 George III., 

 chapter 38, secures to the republican government of the United 

 States certain privileges and limits, our merchants have suffered 

 the obstruction without complaint. 



The United States fishermen have not, however, remained content 

 with the great indulgences afforded them by the treaty, but under 

 numerous pretexts, approach our shores in direct violation of its 

 restrictions; and, for several years past, have had the temerity to 

 take bait even on our beaches. But in order to elucidate and convey 

 some idea in what manner their infringements can so materially 

 affect the success of our fishermen, it may be desirable to explain, in 

 brief terms, the nature of the process itself, as practised here. 



