DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 245 



of latitude in length; and as far as reliance can be placed on the 

 only maps (English ones) in the possession of the undersigned on 

 which this coast is distinctly laid down, it would exclude vessels from 

 fishing grounds which might be thirty miles from the shore. 



Lord Aberdeen, in his note of the 10th instant, on the case of the 

 "Argus," observes that, " as the point of the construction of the con- 

 vention of 1818, iii reference to the right of fishing in the Anglo- 

 American dependencies by citizens of the United States, is treated in 

 another note of the undersigned of this date, relative to the case of 

 the ' Washington,' the undersigned abstains from again touching on 

 that subject." 



This expression taken by itself would seem to authorize the ex- 

 pectation that the waters where these two vessels respectively were 

 captured would be held subject to the same principles, whether of re- 

 striction or relaxation, as indeed all the considerations which occur 

 to the undersigned as having probably led her Majesty's government 

 to the relaxation in reference to the Bay of Fundy, exist in full and 

 even superior force in reference to the waters on the north-eastern 

 coast of Cape Breton, where the " Argus " was seized. But if her 

 Majesty's provincial authorities are permitted to regard as a " bay " 

 any portion of the sea which can be cut off by a direct line connecting 

 two points of the coast, however, destitute in other respects of the 

 character usually implied by that name, not only will the waters on 

 the north-eastern coast of Cape Breton, but on many other parts of 

 the shores of the Anglo-American dependencies where such exclusion 

 has not yet been thought of, be prohibited to American fishermen. 

 In fact, the waters which wash the entire south-eastern coast of Nova 

 Scotia, from Cape Sable to Cape Canso, a distance on a straight line 

 of rather less than three hundred miles, would in this way constitute 

 a bay, from which United States fishermen would be excluded. 



The undersigned, however, forbears to dwell on this subject, being 

 far from certain, on a comparsion of all that is said in the two notes 

 of Lord Aberdeen of the 10th instant, as to the relaxation proposed 

 by her Majesty's government, that it is not intended to embrace the 

 waters of the northeastern coasts of Cape Breton, as well as the Bay 

 of Fundy. 



Lord Aberdeen, towards the close of the note in which the purpose 

 of her Majesty's government is communicated, invites the attention of 

 the undersigned to the fact that British colonial fish is, at the present 

 time, excluded by prohibitory duties from the markets of the United 

 States, and suggests that the moment at which the British govern- 

 ment are making a liberal concession to United States trade, might 

 be deemed favourable for a counter concession on the part of the 

 United States to British trade, by the reduction of duties which 

 operate so prejudicially to the interests of British colonial fishermen. 



The undersigned is of course without instructions which enable him 

 to make out any definite reply to this suggestion. It is no doubt true 

 that the British colonial fish, as far as duties are concerned, enters the 

 United States market, if at all, to some disadvantage. The govern- 

 ment of the United States, lift is persuaded, would gladly make any 

 reduction in these duties which would not seriously injure the native 

 fishermen; but Lord Aberdeen is aware that the encouragement of 

 this class of the seafaring community has ever been considered, as 

 well in the United States as Great Britain, as resting on peculiar 

 grounds of expediency. It is the great school not only of the com- 



