556 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



tho government in London. The fishery article was sharply assailed 

 out of doors. Journals of prominence in the capital represented it 

 as sacrificing high maritime interests of England, following up like 

 sacrifices which they said had been made in the treaties of Vienna. 

 Tho Legislative Assembly and Council of Nova Scotia, sent forward 

 murmurs deep and loud from that quarter. They alleged, that the 

 prospects of British Colonial industry and advantage in North 

 America were exposed to a shock in the competition which this fishery 

 article opened up to the Americans. The commingling tides of 

 complaint from the press and colonies served to swell for a time 

 popular clamor against us; a feeling not without example in England, 

 as those know who may have had opportunities of close observa- 

 tion, when her government has kept aloof and been friendly to us. 

 The clamor had its run and died away. The British statesmen then 

 wielding her power, Lord Liverpool, was Premier and Lord Castle- 

 reagh, Foreign Secretary, had probably not been unaware that there 

 would be, to some extent, an outside feeling of dissatisfaction. They 

 knew their position, and were prepared for its responsibilities. Pay- 

 ing respect to the convictions prevailing in the United States that 

 our fishing rights were not lost by the war of 1812, though so con- 

 trary to the British opinions, they determined upon the compromise 

 which the convention affected. It was in this spirit of amity that a 

 formidable source of dissention was removed, without implicating 

 the honor of either nation ; whilst the ultimate interests of both were 

 thought, by the insert in both, to have been best advanced by the 

 compromise. 



I render with satisfaction this passing tribute to the Liverpool 

 ministry, and especially to Lord Castlereagh; due the more, as it was 

 not the only occasion during my long mission when its amicable 

 counsels touching the United States, interposed to ward off trouble 

 to the two nations, when there was no adequate cause for it on our 

 side. It may be added in this connexion, not as an irrelevant fact but 

 pertinent to the matter I have had in hand, that it was the same 

 ministry with which we negotiated in London the convention of July, 

 1815. This international compact, as far as it went, secured the 

 fairest measure of reciprocity in our commerce and especially our 

 navigation with Britain, which, up to that period, we had been able 

 to obtain from any English ministry, whig or tory, since the day of 

 separation from Britain. Perhaps another fortunate element may be 

 said to have here lended itself with our labors. It was a ministry the 

 most strongly seated in influence and power of any which had pre- 

 ceded it for a century, because governing England at the epoch of 

 Napoleon's downfall. Such a ministry had no fears in being just to 

 us on the fishery question. It was not to be shaken by an outside blast 

 and disregarded it. 



Nothing but the great importance of the subject and the peculiar 

 dilemma in which the disputed question has come to be placed, could 

 justify me in making this letter so long. I must venture to hope that 

 this will be my shield in your eyes. 



A brief, a reluctant, reflection must close it. This will relate to 

 the letter from Mr. Webster, written in July :52, while he was 

 Secretary of State. I desire to speak with nothing but reverence of 

 an American statesman whom death has canonized. To his great 

 abilities, exalted patriotism, and inappreciable services, all do homage. 



