216 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



proceedings of the authorities of Nova Scotia against the citi- 

 127 zens of the United States engaged in the fisheries, and to request 

 that measures may be forthwith adopted by her Majesty's 

 government to remedy the evils arising out of the misconstruction on 

 the part of its provincial authorities of their conventional obligations, 

 and prevent the possibility of the recurrence of similar acts. 



The undersigned renews to Lord Palmerston assurances of his 

 distinguished consideration. 



A. STEVENSON. 



No. 74. 1841, May 8: Despatch from the Right Hon. Viscount Falk- 

 land to the Right Hon. Lord John Russell. 



No. 75. GOVERNMENT HOUSE : Halifax, May 8th 



MY LORD, I have had the honour to receive your Despatch No. 45. 

 date of 9th April 1841. transmitting a copy of a letter from the Under 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, enclosing a note from the 

 American Minister at the Court of St: James's, complaining of cer- 

 tain proceedings of the colonial authorities of Nova Scotia, towards 

 the vessels and citizens of the Republic engaged in fishing on the 

 coasts of the province, and desiring that I will make immediate 

 inquiry into the allegations made by Mr. Stevenson, and forward to 

 you a detailed report on the subject. I have lost no time in obeying 

 your instructions and beg to submit the following observations for 

 your consideration. 



Mr. Stevenson commences his representation by citing the first 

 article of the Convention entered into between Great Britain and the 

 United States on the 20th. October 1818, and signed at London ; and 

 having done so, he says, 



Such are the stipulations of the Treaty, and they are believed to be too 

 plain and explicit to leave room for misapprehension, or render the discus- 

 sion of the respective rights of the two countries at this time necessary: 

 indeed it does not appear that any conflicting questions of right between them 

 have as yet arisen out of the diffeieuces of opinion regarding the true intent 

 and meaning of the Treaty, it appears however that in the actual applica- 

 tion of the provisions of the Convention, (committed on the part of Great 

 Britain to the hands of subordinate agents, subject to, and controlled by 

 local legislation) difficulties growing out of individual acts have unfortunately 

 sprung up from time to time, among the most important of which have been 

 recent seizures, of American vessels for supposed violations of the Treaty. 

 These have been made it is believed, under colour of a provincial law of the 

 6th of Wm. 4th. cap : 8. passed doubtless with a view to restrict rigorously, if 

 not intended to aim a fatal bloiv at the fisheries of the United States on the 

 coast of Newfoundland. It also appears from information recently received 

 by the Govt: of the United States, that the provincial authorities assume a 

 right to exclude the vessels of the United States, from all their buys even 

 including those of Fundy, and Chaleurs, and likewise to prohibit their approach 

 within three miles of a line drawn from headland to headland, instead of 

 from the indents of the shores of the province. 



The difficulties which exist, and of which Mr. Stevenson complains, 

 as growing out of " individual acts " are created by the difference of 

 the interpretation put by the Nova Scotians and the Americans, upon 

 " the true intent and meaning " of the Treaty referred to by his Ex- 

 cellency, and the Act of the Imperial Parliament 59: Geo 3rd. cap: 

 38, founded on that Treaty, and more fully referred to hereafter, 

 and until formal adjudication resulting from the seizure, and prose- 



