538 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



countries, to relax the strict rule of exclusion over the fishing-vessels 

 of the United States entering the bays of the sea on the British North 

 American coasts." 



******* 



" I have to request that your Lordship will inform me whether you 

 have any objections to oiler, on provincial or other grounds, to the 

 proposed relaxation of the construction of the treaty of 1818 between 

 this country and the United States." 



The above is all of this important despatch which the colonial 

 authorities have thought proper to publish. The only cases of cap- 

 ture of our fishermen, of which I had specifically complained, were 

 those of the "Washington" and "Argus;" and the above letter of 

 Lord Stanley, of course, demonstrates that I gave the American pub- 

 lic no " incorrect view " when I led them, by my letter of 2Gth 

 April, 1845, to suppose that on my instance her Majesty's govern- 

 ment had under consideration, at that time, the question of extending 

 to the other outer bays the relaxation which had taken place in refer- 

 ence to the Bay of Fundy. 



Not only so, but it would seem that my representations had been 

 successful ; for whereas on the 21st of April Lord Aberdeen informed 

 me that the relaxation announced in his note of the 10th of March 

 was intended to apply to the Bay of Fundy alone, Lord Stanley, four 

 weeks afterwards, as we have just seen, wrote to Lord Falkland that 

 her Majesty's government, after mature deliberation, deemed it ad- 

 visable, for the interests of both countries to extend the relaxation to 

 the other bays. 



The omission of a portion — and that, no doubt, the most important 

 and significant portion — of Lord Stanley's despatch, as published at 

 Halifax, puts it out of my power to quote from it his own words, as to 

 the extent of the proposed relaxation. It appears, however, suffi- 

 ciently, from the report of Mr. Attorney General Johnston of the 16th 

 June, 1845, that the intention of the imperial government was to 

 admit American fishermen into all bays, creeks, and inlets of which 

 the entrance is more than six miles wide. I cite a passage from the 

 concluding portion of Mr. Attorney General's letter: 



" It is hoped, my lord, that if an arrangement such as is contem- 

 plated should unhappily be made, its terms may clearly express that 

 the American fishermen are to be excluded from fishing within three 

 miles of the entrance of the bays, creeks, and inlets into which they 

 are not to be permitted to enter. 



" Some doubt on this point rests on the language of Lord Stanley's 

 despatch ; and the making the criterion of the restricted bays, creeks, 

 and inlets to be the width of the double of the three marine miles 

 would strengthen the doubt, by raising the presumption that the 

 shores of these bays, &c, and the shores of the general coast, were to 

 be considered in the same light, and treated on the same footing." 



An extract from another despatch of Lord Stanley, of the 17th of 

 September, will also show that it was intended to admit the American 

 fishermen into all the outer bays of certain dimensions, as it will also 

 unhappily show the cause why that liberal policy was abandoned 

 which had been adopted, as Lord Stanley, in his letter of the 19th of 

 May, 1845, had stated, with great justice, " for the interests of both 

 countries." 



