240 APPENDIX TO BKITISH CASE. 



effects, and the vessels subjected to a mode of procedure in the courts 

 which amounts in many cases to confiscation; and this is done to 

 settle the construction of a treaty. 



A course so violent and unnecessarily harsh would be regarded by 

 any government as a just cause of complaint against any other with 

 whom it might differ in the construction of a national compact. But 

 when it is considered that these are the acts of a provincial govern- 

 ment, with whom that of the United States has and can have no in- 

 tercourse, and that they continue and are repeated while the United 

 States and Great Britain, the only parties to the treaty the purport 

 of whose provisions is called in question, are amicably discussing the 

 matter, with every wish, on both sides, to bring it to a reasonable set- 

 tlement, Lord Aberdeen will perceive that it becomes a subject of 

 complaint of the most serious kind. 



As such, the undersigned is instructed again to bring it to Lord 

 Aberdeen's notice, and to express the confident hope that such meas- 

 ures of redress as the urgency of the case requires will, at the instance 

 of his lordship, be promptly resorted to. 



The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew to the 

 Earl of Aberdeen the assurance of his distinguished consideration. 



EDWARD EVERETT. 



The EARL OF ABERDEEN, &c., &c., &c. 



No. 83. 1845, March 10: Letter from Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Everett. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, March 10, 1845. 



The undersigned, her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for 

 Foreign Affairs, duly referred to the Colonial Department the note 

 which Mr. Everett, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 

 tiary of the United States of America, did him the honor to address 

 to him on the 25th of May last, respecting the case of the " Washing- 

 ton," fishing vessel, and on the general question of the right of the 

 United States fishermen to pursue their calling in the Bay of Fundy ; 

 and haying shortly since received the answer of that department, the 

 undersigned is now enabled to make a reply to Mr. Everett's commu- 

 nication, which he trusts will be found satisfactory. 



In acquitting himself of this duty, the undersigned will not think it 

 necessary to enter into a lengthened argument in reply to the obser- 

 vations which have at different times been submitted to her Majesty's 

 government by Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Everett, on the subject of the 

 right of fishing in the Bay of Fundy, as claimed in behalf of the 

 United States' citizens. The undersigned will confine himself to 

 stating that after the most deliberate reconsideration of the subject, 

 and with every desire to do full justice to the United States, and to 

 view the claims put forward on behalf of United States' citizens in 

 the most favorable light, her Majesty's government are nevertheless 

 still constrained to deny the right of United States' citizens, under 

 the treaty of 1818, to fish in that part of the Bay of Fundy which, 

 from its geographical position, may properly be considered as in- 

 cluded within the British possessions. 



Her Majesty's government must still maintain, and in this view 

 they are fortified by high legal authority, that the Bay of Fundy is 

 rightfully claimed by Great Britain as a Bay within the meaning of 



