DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 215 



suggesting the extension to adjoining British colonies of rules and 

 regulations relating to the fisheries, similar to those in actual opera- 

 tion in that province, and which have proved so onerous to the 

 fishermen of the United States; and that efforts, it is understood, 

 are still making to induce the other colonies to unite with Nova 

 Scotia in this restrictive system. Some of the provisions of her code 

 are of the most extraordinary character. Among these is one which 

 declares that any foreign vessel preparing to fish within three miles 

 of the coast of her Majesty's dominions in America shall, together 

 with her cargo, be forfeited; that in all cases of seizure, the owner 

 or claimant of the vessel, &c., shall be held to prove his innocence, 

 or pay treble costs; that he shall be forced to try his action within 

 three months, and give one month's notice at least to the seizing 

 officer, containing everything intended to be proved against him, 

 before any suit can be instituted ; and also prove that the notice 

 has been given. The seizing officer, moreover, is almost wholly 

 irresponsible, inasmuch as he is liable to no prosecution if the 

 judge certifies that there was probable cause; and the plaintiff, if 

 successful in his suit, is only to be entitled to two pence damages 

 without costs, and the defendant fined not more than one shilling. 

 In short, some of these rules and regulations are violations of well 

 established principles of the common law of England, and of the 

 principles of the just laws of all civilized nations, and would seem 

 to have been designed to enable her Majesty's authorities to seize 

 and confiscate with impunity American vessels, and embezzle indis- 

 criminately the property of American citizens employed in the fish- 

 eries on the coasts of the British provinces. 



It may be proper, also, on this occasion, to bring to the notice of 

 her Majesty's government the assertion of the provincial legislature 

 ''''that the Gut or Strait of Canso is a narrow strip of water, com- 

 pletely within and dividing several counties of the province" and 

 that the use of it by the vessels and citizens of the United States is 

 in violation of the treaty of 1818. This strait separates Nova Scotia 

 from the island of Cape Breton, which was not annexed to the prov- 

 ince until the year 1820. Prior to that, in 1818, Cape Breton was 

 enjoying a government of its own, entirely distinct from Nova Scotia, 

 the strait forming the line of demarcation between them, and being 

 then, as now, a thoroughfare for vessels passing into and out of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. The union of the two colonies cannot, there- 

 fore, be admitted, as vesting in the province the right to close a pas- 

 sage which has been freely and indisputably used by the citizens of 

 the United States since the year 1783. It is impossible, moreover, to 

 conceive how the use on the part of the United States of this right 

 of passage, common, it is believed to all other nations, can in any 

 manner conflict with the letter or spirit of the existing treaty stipula- 

 tions. The undersigned would therefore fain hope that her Majesty's 

 government will be disposed to meet, as far as practicable, the wishes 

 of the American government, in accomplishing in the fullest and most 

 liberal manner the objects which both governments had in view in 

 entering into the conventional arrangement of 1818. 



He has accordingly been instructed to bring the whole subject 

 under the consideration of her Majesty's government, and to remon- 

 strate on the part of his government against the illegal and vexatious 



