PERIOD FROM 1836 TO 1854. 429 



respectable and intelligent gentlemen of that town, who seemed 

 deeply to regret that their own government officers should have pro- 

 ceeded with so much rigor against the American fishing craft, believ- 

 ing with the consul and the Americans generally, that, in a majority 

 of cases, the seizures had been made for causes of the most trivial 

 character. It is perfectly certain that our fishermen must have the 

 right to resort to the shores of the British provinces for shelter in 

 bad weather, for fuel, and for water, unmolested by British armed 

 cruisers, or this important branch of American industry must be, to 

 a very great extent abandoned. It affords but poor consolation to 

 the fisherman, whose vessel has been wantonly captured, and who 

 finds himself and his friends on shore among foreigners already suf- 

 ficiently prejudiced against him, without provisions and without 

 money, to be told that the court of vice-admiralty will see that 

 justice is done him, and that, if innocent, his vessel will be restored 

 to him. The expenses of his defence and the loss of the fishing 

 season are his ruin. 



These seizures are made under a colonial law of the province of 

 Nova Scotia. I could not learn what disposition is made of the 

 property seized, after it is decreed forfeited ; but I believe it is divided 

 among the persons making the captures. If this be the fact, it will 

 sufficiently explain any discrepancy in the testimony of the witnesses, 

 which may appear in Mr. Grantham's statement; and it will also, per- 

 haps, explain the eagerness with which these fishing vessels seem to 

 be taken and carried into port for trial. 



I learned in Yarmouth, and also on the American coast, in the 

 State of Maine, where our vessel touched for the purpose of landing 

 the two destitute fishermen mentioned by Mr. Grantham, that many 

 more of our vessels had been seized, during the present season, at the 

 Gut of Canso. Some of these seizures have been made for other and 

 different causes from those now detained at Yarmouth. The officers 

 of the British cruisers accuse the masters of these vessels of carrying 

 on an illicit trade in the articles of tea and tobacco with the British 

 subjects of Nova Scotia. I have, from the best authority, the facts in 

 one of these cases: The captain of an American fishing schooner had 

 on board, among other ship's stores, half a keg of tobacco for the use 

 of his crew. An inhabitant of the province came on board his vessel, 

 and, after great importunity, persuaded the American to let him 

 1 1 uve a few pounds, for which he paid in a small quantity of wood. 

 The purchaser of the tobacco immediately informed the ollieers of 

 the government; and (lie vessel, her cargo, and provisions, are now 

 under seizure for (his offence. It is, of course, impossible to predict 

 tin- result of tin' examination of all the cases in the court of vice- 

 admiralty al Hali fax, where they are now pending. The owners and 

 persons interested hope, however, thai that tribunal will discriminate 

 between eases of a flagrant and premeditated violation of the treaty 

 and the laws of the proi inces, and the mere trivial, unimportant, and 

 fortuitous offences which are described in Mr. Grantham s statement, 

 and which are known to many other persons to have been hastily and 

 very imprudently brought up for adjudication. 



In conclusion, permit me to add, that we were received with great 

 en nte \ and kindness by the public officers and citizens of Yarmouth; 

 and thai we are under special obligations to Mr. Grantham, our con- 



