DESPATCHES, BEPOETS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 197 



panying papers on the aggressions alleged to have been committed by 

 the citizens of the United States on our fisheries in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, and the coast of Newfoundland, and also the Queen's Ad- 

 vocate's opinion thereon. 



Their Lordships in reply, direct me to request that you will inform 

 Lord Palmerston that having pursuant to his Lordship's desire, at 

 the Queen's Advocate's suggestion, perused the above mentioned docu- 

 ments, and having likewise communicated with various individuals 

 well acquainted with the matters in dispute, they have to offer the 

 following observations thereon for his Lordship's consideration. 



Their Lordships presume that after the opinion expressed by the 

 Queen's Advocate upon the international rights of this Kingdom 

 and the United States in respect to the fisheries in question, the rec- 

 ommendation of Lord Glenelg that the intervention of Her 

 116 Majesty's Government should be employed for the protection 

 of the British subjects engaged in such fisheries will be 

 adopted and that Her Majesty's Minister at Washington will be in- 

 structed by Lord Palmerston to come to a proper understanding with 

 the Government of the United States upon the subject. 



In the instructions that Lord Palmerston may give to Mr. Fox for 

 this negotiation, their Lordships would suggest that his Excellency's 

 attention should be drawn to the depositions of the witnesses at- 

 tached to the Report of the Committee of the House of Assembly of 

 Nova Scotia, as constituting in conjunction with the remarks of the 

 Queen's Advocate, the case on which his application must be 

 grounded. The case however may be brought within a more narrow 

 compass than the colonists seem to apprehend, for the grievances of 

 which they complain are in many instances in no degree imputable 

 to the American Government; and consequently will not enter into 

 the negotiation. That the Americans have succeeded in appropri- 

 ating to themselves a very valuable portion of the fishing trade, to the 

 serious prejudice of the colonists is unhappily an incontrovertible 

 fact, but it should be borne in mind, that the above mentioned report 

 admits the Americans concerned in the trade to abound in capital, 

 enterprise and skill, whilst the colonial fishermen are usually poor, ill 

 provided with vessels, and often following other pursuits besides 

 fishing, which must cause them to be but moderately skilled fisher- 

 men, and as long as the competition is carried on upon such unequal 

 terms, the superior prosperity of the fishermen of the United States, 

 over our fishermen may be sufficiently explained, without resorting 

 to the alleged violation of the Treaty by the former. In fact the 

 complaints made by the colonists against the Americans, are too 

 much like those raised by our own fishermen at home against the 

 French, which have so often been brought before the public and the 

 Government without producing a satisfactory result. 



The exclusion of the Americans from the Gut of Canso, might in- 

 deed be of great service to the colonists, but this has been pronounced 

 by the Queen's Advocate to be impracticable. The act of aggression 

 with which the citizens of the United States are charged, will proba- 

 bly be disputed, but their Lordships do not entertain a doubt of 

 their having been committed. It may be presumed that if the 

 French venture upon vexatious and fraudulent practices against our 

 fishermen absolutely on our coasts, the citizens of the United States 

 are not likely to pay scrupulous attention to the exclusive rights of 



