DESPATCHES, EEPORTS, COERESPONDENCE, ETC. 231 



The President is perfectly satisfied with the manner in which you 

 huve presented the case of the American vessel Washington, seized 

 by British colonial authorities for having been found fishing within 

 the Bay of Fundy, and with the argument on the main question con- 

 tained in your note to the Earl of Aberdeen of the 25th of May last, 

 involving the interpretation to be given to the provisions of the 

 convention of 1818. * * * 



136 No. 80. 1844, September 17: Despatch from the Right Eon. 

 Viscount Falkland (Lieutenant- Governor of Nova Scotia) 

 to the Right Hon. Lord Stanley (British Colonial Sec- 

 retary). 



No. 271. GOVERNMENT HOUSE HALIFAX 17th September 1844- 



MY LORD, I have had the honour to receive your despatch, No. 176, 

 date 28 July 1844, enclosing a letter from Mr. Addington, covering 

 a further representation from the Minister of the United States at 

 London upon the seizure of the American fishing vessel " The Wash- 

 ington," in which his Excellency complains of the alleged strained 

 interpretation of the Convention of 1818, by which American vessels 

 are excluded from fishing in the Bay of Fundy. Your Lordship 

 likewise informs me that Lord Aberdeen is well disposed, on mature 

 consideration, to relax the strict rule which has hitherto been declared 

 applicable to American vessels found fishing within the limits of the 

 Bay (but without renouncing the right of Great Britain to consider 

 the Bay of Fundy as distinguished from the ocean) provided the 

 fishermen of the United States do not approach within three miles 

 of any inlet within the bay, or within three miles of the coast, and 

 you do me the honour to require my unreserved opinion upon Lord 

 Aberdeen's proposal. 



With regard to the seizure of " The Washington " I have already 

 in my despatch No. 185, date 17 October 1843, explained the ground's 

 of her capture, and the reasons which induced me, in accordance 

 with the advice of the provincial Crown officers, to refrain from 

 interfering to prevent her condemnation. 



Mr. Everett complains that the provincial authorities captured and 

 detained " The Washington " while a negotiation between the Gov- 

 ernments of the United States and Great Britain on the point at 

 issue, namely the right of American fishermen to fish in the waters 

 of the Bay of Fundy, was in train, and undetermined ; but it is mani- 

 fest that if the American fishermen had acted in accordance with the 

 rule here laid down by their minister, and abstained from exercising 

 the right they claim until it was decided that they actually possessed 

 it, no such act as that against which they now protest could have been 

 committed. 



In Tespect to the expediency of relaxing the strict rule which has 

 hitherto been declared applicable to American vessels found fishing 

 within the limits of the Bay of Fundy, I have found it difficult to 

 arrive at a conclusion, because although some members of the Execu- 

 tive Council believe, with myself, that such a concession, provided 

 it led to no other of a like nature, would not be productive of injury 



