(516 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



The precise limits of the station on which you are to cruise, anil 

 the further detail- of your duties, will be described in the directions 

 you will receive as above. 



Considerable inconvenience is caused by Canadian fishing vessels, 

 and those belonging on Prince Edward Island, neglecting to show 

 their colors. You will draw the attention of masters to this fact, and 

 request them to hoist their colors without requiring to be hailed and 

 boa nled. 



It cannot be too strongly impressed upon you, nor too carefully en- 

 joined on the officers and crew under your command, that the pres- 

 ent service should be performed in a spirit of forbearance and mod- 

 eration. 



The Government relies on your prudence, discretion, and firmness 

 in the performance of the special duties thus entrusted to you. 



I have the honor to be, Sir, 



Your obedient servant, P. Mitchell, 



Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 



Mr. Fish to Mr. Thornton. 



Department or State 



Washington, June SO, 1870. 



Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of 

 the 11th instant, in which you confirm my impression that Admiral 

 Wellesley will have modified the directions to the officers under his 

 command engaged in the protection of the Canadian fisheries, so that 

 they shall be in conformity with the views of the admiralty, and in 

 which you point out. under instructions from the lamented Earl of 

 Clarendon, that the circular of the lGth ultimo, issued by the Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury of the United States, respecting the Canadian 

 in-shore fisheries, may lead to further misunderstanding, inasmuch as 

 it limits the maritime jurisdiction of the Dominion of Canada to 

 three marine miles from the shores thereof. 



In view of the claims heretofore presented by her Majesty's gov- 

 ernment and which, as it contends, are supported by the law of 

 nations and the stipulations of the treaty of 1818. as to the extent of 

 British maritime jurisdiction in the waters in which the fisheries are 

 prosecuted on the eastern coast of North America, the President is 

 pleased to recognize in the tenor of the dispatches and instructions 

 which have been addressed by her Majesty's government to the Ca- 

 nadian authorities and to Admiral Wellesley a generous spirit of 

 amity, which is reciprocated by the United States. Animated by 

 that spirit, he directs that her Majesty's government be informed 

 that the description of the limit of Canadian maritime jurisdiction 

 contained in the circular in question, and which was adopted before 

 this Government was made acquainted with the nature of the instruc- 

 tions which it was proposed by her Majesty's government to issue, was 

 used for the sake of brevity in expressing the interpretation which 

 has been heretofore placed upon the first article of the treaty of 1818 

 by this Government, and not with the expectation of renewing a 

 controversial discussion upon the subject, which, under present cir- 

 cumstances, he would sincerely deprecate. 



Hamilton Fish. 



