564 t OHHESPONDENCE, ETC. 



no renewal or extension of the existing Treaty would be made by the 

 American authorities, but that whatever was done must be done by 

 legislation, submitted a memorandum to the Committee as the basis 

 upon which they desired arrangements to be made. 



This memorandum was not accepted by the Committee, which 

 drafted a counter-memoiandum declaring its readiness to recommend 

 to the House of Representatives for their adoption a law providing 

 for the continuance of some of the measures embraced in the Treaty. 

 The delegates considered that the proposals of the Committee were 

 unacceptable; and finding, after discussion, that no important modifi- 

 cations in the views of the Committee could be obtained, declined to 

 accede to the counter-proposal, and the negotiations terminated. 



As you considered, from the terms of this counter-proposal, that 

 the Committee desired to break off negotiations and not to entertain 

 any proposal for the continuation of the Treaty, you deemed it 

 advisable to addres< a note to Mr. Seward, expressing the readiness 

 of Her Majesty's Government to renew the existing Treaty or to 

 reconsider the Treaty in conjunction with the Government of The 

 United States, if such a course would be agreeable to them, and so to 

 modify its terms as to render it, if possible, more beneficial to both 

 countries than it had previously been. You suggested at the same 

 time to Mr. Seward, that if the Government of The United States 

 felt disposed to adopt the latter course, an arrangement of a pro- 

 visional character might bs entered into with a view to afford time 

 for fresh negotiations, and expressed your readiness to submit to 

 the consideration of Her Majesty's Government any proposal to that 

 effect which Mr. Seward might communicate to you. In reply, Mr. 

 Seward stated that careful inquiry during the recess induced the 

 President to believe that there was no such harmony of public interest 

 in favour of the extension of the Treaty as would encourage him in 

 directing negotiations to be opened, and that inquiries made since 

 the re-assembling of Congress confirmed the belief that Congress 

 preferred to treat the subject directly, and not to approach it through 

 the forms of diplomatic agreement. All communications had accord- 

 ingly been submitted to the consideration of the proper Committees 

 of Congress, and the question of extending a system of reciprocal 

 trade with the British provinces on the United States' frontier 

 awaited their decision. 



The attempts thus made, whether to renew the Treaty, to conclude 

 a new one, or to extend the time for its expiration, in order to admit 

 of negotiations, having failed, and the Treaty having now expired, it 

 becomes the duty of Her Majesty's Government to consider what 

 course they should pursue. By the termination of the Treaty of 

 1854, two important and undoubted rights of this country, the enjoy- 

 ment of which, through the operation of the Treaty, were temporarily 

 ceded to citizens of the United States, revert absolutely to the British 

 Crown. Those rights are, first, the exclusive right of fishing by its 

 subjects on the sea-coasts and shores, and in the bays, harbours, and 

 creeks, of the British possessions of North America, except in so much 

 as certain restricted privileges may have been conceded by the Con- 

 vention of 1818 to American citizens; and, secondly, the exclusive 

 right of navigation by its subjects of the River St. Lawrence, and the 

 canals communicating between the great lakes and the canals in 

 Canada. 



