222 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



No. 75. 1843, August 10: Letter from Mr, Everett (United States 

 Minister at London) to Lord Aberdeen (British Foreign Secre- 

 tary) . 



46 GROSVENOR PLACE, August 10, 1843. 



The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipoten- 

 tiary of the United States of America, has the honour to transmit to 

 the earl of Aberdeen, her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for 

 foreign affairs, the accompanying papers relating to the seizure on 

 the 10th of May last, on the coast of Xova Scotia, by an officer of the 

 provincial customs, of the American fishing schooner Washington, 

 of Newburyport, in the State of Massachusetts, for an alleged in- 

 fraction of the stipulations of the convention of the 20th of October, 

 1818, between the United States and Great Britain. 



It appears from the deposition of William Bragg, a seaman on 

 board the Washington, that at the time of her seizure she was not 

 within ten miles of the coast of Nova Scotia. By the first article 

 of the convention above alluded to, the United States renounce any 

 liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by their inhabitants to take, 

 dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the coast 

 of her Majesty's dominions in America, for which express provision 

 is not made in the said article. This renunciation is the only limita- 

 tion existing on the right of fishing upon the coasts of her Majesty's 

 dominions in America, secured to the people of the United States by 

 the third article of the treaty of 1783. 



The right, therefore, of fishing on any part of the coast of Nova 

 Scotia, at a greater distance than three miles, is so plain that it would 

 be difficult to conceive on what ground it could be drawn in question 

 had not attempts been already made by the provincial authorities of 

 her Majesty's colonies, to interfere with its exercise. These attempts 

 have formed the subject of repeated complaints on the part of the 

 government of the United States, as will appear from several notes 

 addressed by the predecessor of the undersigned to Lord 



Palmerston. 



131 From the construction attempted to be placed, on former oc- 



casions, upon the first article of the treaty of 1818, by the 

 colonial authorities, the undersigned supposes that the " Washington " 

 was seized because she was found fishing in the Bay of Fundy, and 

 on the ground that the lines within which American vessels are for- 

 bidden to fish, are to run from headland to headland, and not to fol- 

 low the shore. It is plain, however, that neither the words nor the 

 spirit of the convention admits of any such construction; nor, it is 

 believed, was it set up by the provincial authorities for several years 

 after the negotiation of that instrument. A glance at the map will 

 show Lord Aberdeen that there is, perhaps, no part of the great ex- 

 tent of the sea coasts of her Majesty's possessions in America, in 

 which the right of an American vessel to fish can be subject to less 

 doubt than that in which the " Washington " was seized. 



For a full statement of the nature of the complaints which have, 

 from time to time, been made by the government of the United States 

 against the proceedings of the colonial authorities of Great Britain, 

 the undersigned invites the attention of Lord Aberdeen to a note of 

 Mr. Stevenson, addressed to Lord Palmerston on the 27th March, 



