DESPATCHES, KEPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 247 



]SJo. 87. 184$, April 23: Letter from Mr. Everett to Mr. Buchanan 



(United States Secretary of State}. 

 [No. 305.] 



LONDON, April %3, 18.1ft. 



SIR : With my despatch, No. 278, of 25th March, I transmitted the 

 note of Lord Aberdeen, of the 10th of March, communicating the 

 important information that this government had come to the de- 

 termination to concede to American fishermen the right of pursuing 

 their occupation within the Bay of Fundy. It was left somewhat 

 uncertain by Lord Aberdeen's note whether this concession was 

 intended to be confined to the Bay of Fundy, or to extend to other 

 portions of the coast of the Anglo-American possessions, to which 

 the principles contended for by the government of the United States, 

 equally apply, and particr.larly to the waters on the northeastern 

 shores of Cape Breton, where the " Argus " was captured. In my 

 notes of the 25th ultimo and 2d instant, on the subject of the " Wash- 

 ington " and the " Argus," I was careful to point out to Lord Aber- 

 deen that all the reasons for admitting the right of Americans to 

 fish in the Bay of Fundy, apply to those waters, and with superior 

 force, inasmuch as they are less landlocked than the Bay of Fundy, 

 and to express the hope that the concession was meant to extend to 

 them, which there was some reason to think, from the mode in which 

 Lord Aberdeen expressed himself, was the case. 



I received last evening, the answer of his lordship, informing me 

 that my two notes had been referred to the colonial office, and that 

 a final reply could not be returned till he should be made acquainted 

 with the result of that reference, and that, in the meantime, the con- 

 cession must be understood to be limited to the Bay of Fundy. 



The merits of the question are so clear that I cannot but anticipate 

 that the decision of the colonial office will be in favour of the liberal 

 construction of the convention. In the meantime I beg leave to 

 suggest, that in any public notice which may be given that the Bay 

 of Fundy is henceforth open to American fishermen, it should be 

 carefully stated that the extension of the same privilege to the other 

 great bays on the coasts of the Anglo-American dependencies, is a 

 matter of negotiation between the two governments. 



I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 



EDWARD EVERETT. 

 JAMES BUCHANAN, Esq. 



/Secretary of State- 



No. 88. 181$, May 19: Despatch from the Right Hon. Lord Stanley 

 to the Right Hon. Viscount Falkland. 



VISCOUNT FALKLAND. 

 No 225 



DOWNING ST, 19th May/lft. 



MY LORD, H. M. Govt having frequently had before them the com- 

 plaints of the Minister of the IT. States in this country on account 

 of the capture of vessels belonging to fishermen of the IT. States by 

 the provincial cruisers of N. Scotia & N. Brunswick for alleged 



