PERIOD FROM 1836 TO 1854. 479 



a reference to the correspondence between Mr. Stevenson and Vis- 

 count Palmerston on the subject of former complaints of the Ameri- 

 can government, of the manner in which the fishing vessels of the 

 United States had in several ways been interfered with by the pro- 

 vincial authorities, in contravention as is believed, of the treaty of 

 October, 1818, between the two countries. Lord Aberdeen's attention 

 was particularly invited to the fact that no answer as yet had been 

 returned to Mr. Stevenson's note to Lord Palmerston, of 27th 

 March, 1841, the receipt of which and its reference to the Colonial 

 department were announced by a note of Lord Palmerston of the 2d 

 April. The undersigned further observed that on the 28th of the same 

 month Lord Palmerston acquainted Mr. Stevenson that his lordship 

 had been advised from the Colonial office, that " copies of the papers 

 received from Mr. Stevenson would be furnished to Lord Falkland, 

 with instructions to inquire into the allegations contained therein, 

 and to furnish a detailed report on the subject; " but that there was 

 not found on the files of this legation any further communication 

 from Lord Palmerston on the subject. 



The note of Lord Aberdeen, of the 15th of April last, is confined 

 exclusively to the case of the Washington; and it accordingly be- 

 comes the duty of the undersigned again to invite his lordship's at- 

 tention to the correspondence above referred to between Mr. Steven- 

 son and Lord Palmerston, and to request that inquiry may be made, 

 without unnecessary delay, into all the causes of complaint which 

 have been made by the American government against the improper 

 interference of the British colonial, authorities with the fishing ves- 

 Bels of the United States. 



In reference to the case of the Washington, Lord Aberdeen, in his 

 note of the 15th of April, justifies her seizure by an armed provincial 

 vessel, on the assumed fact that, as she was found fishing in the Bay 

 of Fundy, she was within the limits from which the fishing vessels 

 of the United States arc excluded by the provisions of the convention 

 between the two countries of October, 1818. 



The undersigned had remarked in his note of the 10th of August 

 last, on the impropriety of the conduct of the colonial authorities in 

 proceeding in reference to a question of construct ion of a treaty pend- 

 ing between the two counl rics, to decide the question in their own 

 favor, and in virtue of that decision to order the capture of the ves- 

 sels of a friendly State. A summary exercise of power of this kind, 

 the undersigned is Hire would never he re orted to by her Majesty's 

 government, except in an extreme case, while a negotiation was in 

 train on the point at issue. Such a procedure on the part of a local 



colonial authority is of course highly objectionable, and the under- 

 signed cannot but again invite the attention of Lord Aberdeen to 

 this new of the abject. 



With respect to tin' main question of the right of American ves- 

 to fi-h within the acknowledged limits of the Bay of I'undv. it is 



necessary, \'<>r a clear understanding of the case, i<> go hack t<> the 

 treaty of IT 



By this treaty it was provided that the citizens of the United 

 States should he allowed " to take fish of every kind on uch part of 

 the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall u c. (hut not 



to dry or CUre the same on that island) and al On the coat-, hays 

 and creeks of all other of hi- Britannic M:> I 1 ' ty's dominions in Amer- 



