500 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



restriction or relaxation, as indeed all the considerations which occur 

 to the undersigned as having probably led her Majesty's government 

 to the relaxation in reference to the Bay of Fundy, exist in full and 

 even superior in reference to the waters on the northeastern coast of 

 Cape Breton, where the "Argus" was seized. But if her Majesty's 

 provincial authorities are permitted to regard as a " bay " any por- 

 tion of the sea which can be cut off by a direct line connecting two 

 points of the coast, however destitute in other respects of the charac- 

 ter usually implied by that name, not only will the waters on the 

 north eastern coast of Cape Breton, but on many other parts of the 

 shores of the Anglo-American dependencies where such exclusion 

 has not yet been thought of, be prohibited to American fishermen. 

 In fact, the waters which wash the entire south-eastern coast of Nova 

 Scotia, from Cape Sable to Cape Canso, a distance on a straight line 

 of rather less than three hundred miles, would in this way constitute 

 a bay from which United States fishermen would be excluded. 



The undersigned, however, forbears to dwell on this subject, being 

 far from certain, on a comparison of all that is said in the two notes 

 of Lord Aberdeen of the 10th instant, as to the relaxation proposed 

 by her Majesty's government, that it is not intended to embrace the 

 waters of the northeastern coasts of Cape Breton, as well as the 

 Bay of Fundy. 



Lord Aberdeen, towards the close of the note in which the purpose 

 of her Majesty's government is communicated, invites the attention 

 of the undersigned to the fact that British colonial fish is, at the 

 present time, excluded by prohibitory duties from the markets of 

 the United States, and suggests that the moment at which the British 

 government are making a liberal concession to United States trade, 

 might be deemed favorable for a counter concession on the part of 

 the United States to British trade, by the reduction of duties which 

 operate so prejudicially to the interests of British colonial fishermen. 



The undersigned is of course without instructions which enable 

 him to make any definite reply to this suggestion. It is no doubt true 

 that the British colonial fish, as far as duties are concerned, enters 

 the United States market, if at all, to some disadvantage. The gov- 

 ernment of the United States, he is persuaded, would gladly make 

 any reduction in these duties which would not seriously injure the 

 native fishermen; but Lord Aberdeen is aware that the encourage- 

 ment of this class of the sea-faring community, has ever been consid- 

 ered, as well in the United States as Great Britain, as resting on pe- 

 culiar grounds of expediency. It is the great school not only of the 

 commercial but of the public marine, and the highest considerations 

 of national policy require it to be fostered. 



The British colonial fishermen possess considerable advantages 

 over those of the United States. The remoter fisheries of Newfound- 

 land and Labrador are considerably more accessible to the colonial 

 than to the United States fishermen. The fishing grounds on the 

 coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, abounding in cod, mack- 

 erel and herring, lie at the doors of the former; he is therefore able 

 to pursue his avocation in a smaller class of vessels, and requires a 

 smaller outfit ; he is able to use the net and the seine to great advantage 

 in the small bays and inlets along the coast, from which the fisher- 

 men of the United States, under any construction of the treaty, are 



