DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 257 



Treaty, our citizens, who hold just demands against her, would have 

 no remedy either against Mexico or their own government. Our 

 duty to these citizens must for ever prevent such a Peace, and no 

 Treaty which does not provide ample means of discharging these 

 demands can receive my sanction. 



152 No. 94. 185%, July 6: Extract from newspaper, enclosed in 

 No. 100, Appendix, p. 168, being official publication of Mr. 

 Daniel Webster, United States Secretary of State. 



THE AMERICAN FISHERIES. 

 [From The Boston Courier of Monday.] 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON, July 6tk, 185%. 

 Information of an official character has been received at this De- 

 partment to the following effect: 



The late Ministry of England was opposed to the granting of bounties on 

 principle, and in consequence it steadily refused to give the necessary assent to 

 Acts of the Colonial Legislatures granting bounties to the fisheries. The colo- 

 nies complained severally of this interference with their local affairs ; and they 

 further complained that the Government declined to enforce the provisions of 

 the Fishery Convention of 1818, and thereby permitted American fishermen to 

 encroach upon the best fishing grounds, from which, under the legal construction 

 of the Treaty, they ought to be excluded. 



With the recent change of Ministry in England has occurred an entire change 

 of policy. The present Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir John Pakington, 

 has addressed a circular letter to the Governors of the several North American 

 Colonies, an extract from which is as follows: 



" DOWNING STREET, May 28, 1852. 



"Among the many pressing subjects which have engaged the attention of 

 Her Majesty's Ministers since their assumption of office, few have been more 

 important in their estimation than the questions relating to the protection 

 solicited for the fisheries on the coasts of British North America. 



" Her Majesty's Government have taken into their serious consideration the 

 representations upon this subject contained in your despatches noted in the 

 margin, and have not failed to observe that whilst active measures have been 

 taken by certain colonies for the purpose of encouraging their fisheries, and of 

 repelling the intrusion of foreign vessels, it has been a subject of complaint that 

 impediments should have been offered by the policy of the Imperial Government 

 to the enactment of bounties, considered by the local Legislatures essential for 

 the protection of this trade. Her Majesty's Ministers are desirous of removing 

 all grounds of complaint on the part of the colonies, in consequence of the 

 encroachments of the fishing vessels of the United States upon those waters 

 from which they are excluded by the terms of the Convention of 1818. and they 

 therefore intend to dispatch as soon as possible a small naval force of steamers 

 or other small vessels to enforce the observance of that Convention." 



This announcement is accompanied by the following, as to the bounties: 



" ' With regard to the question of promoting the fisheries of the British Colo- 

 nies by the means of bounties, Her Majesty's Government, although desirous 

 not to sanction any unnecessary deviation from that policy which regulates the 

 commerce of this country, are still disinclined to prevent those colonies, by the 

 interposition of Imperial authority and especially pending the negotiation with 

 the United States of America for the settlement of the principles on which the 

 commerce with the British North American Colonies is hereafter to be carried 

 on from adopting the policy which they may deem most conducive to their own 

 prosperity and welfare.' 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 4 27 



