DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 287 



undoubted rights under treaties is one which in this country is not 

 materially affected by changes of Ministry; and the real question 

 therefore is what are those rights, and how they are understood re- 

 spectively by Great Britain and the United States. 



The rights are laid down in the Treaty of 1818, as quoted by Mr. 

 Webster, that is, undoubted and unlimited privileges of fishing in 

 certain places were thereby given by Great Britain to the inhabitants 

 of the United States; and the Government of the United States on 

 their part renounced for ever any liberty, previously enjoyed or 

 claimed by its citizens, to fish within three marine miles of any other 

 of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours, of the British dominions. 



A point in dispute in regard to this matter subsequently arose as to 

 the interpretation to be given to the term " bay," namely, whether an 

 American vessel could fish within a bay so long as she was beyond 

 three miles from the shore, or whether the words of the Treaty 

 " within three miles of any of the bays " meant within three miles of 

 a line drawn from headland to headland ; and in the year 1845 a cor- 

 respondence ensued between the British and United States' Govern- 

 ments, which led to the dispatch of a letter from Mr. Everett, the 

 United States' Minister in this country, to his Government, dated 

 London April 26th 1845. This letter has been published by Mr. Web- 

 ster, and is unfortunately calculated to cause an incorrect view to be 

 taken of the subject by the American public ; for Mr. Everett therein 

 stated that Lord Aberdeen's note of the 10th of March 1845 conceded 

 to American -fishermen the right of fishing within the Bay of Fundy, 

 but left doubtful the question of other bays, and that he had accord- 

 ingly claimed the same right as regards other bays; and it is to be 

 inferred from Mr. Everett's expressions that Lord Aberdeen had 

 replied that he would submit that question to the Colonial Office, 

 and that meanwhile the concession was to be limited to the Bay of 

 Fundy. 



Now, if Lord Aberdeen's notes to which Mr. Everett alluded had 

 been carefully examined by Mr. Webster, and had also been published, 

 Mr. Webster and the public of the two countries would have seen 

 that, instead of conceding a right, Lord Aberdeen expressly reserved 

 it ; but that, in order to prove the friendly feeling of Great Britain 

 towards the United States, Her Majesty's Government, by Lord 

 Aberdeen's note, "relaxed" as regards the Bay of Fundy, the right 

 which Her Majesty's Government felt bound to maintain of exclud- 

 ing American fishermen from that bay, and, moreover, it would have 

 appeared that Lord Aberdeen in the letter referred to merely stated 

 that he would submit to the Colonial Office the question relating to 

 the seizure of two particular vessels, the " Washington " and " Ar- 

 gus," and that, as regarded the bays, his words were to be taken as 

 applying to the Bay of Fundy alone. 



It appears however, partly by Mr. Webster's communications with 

 you and by terms of his official publications, and partly by the pro- 

 ceedings in the Senate of the United States, that it is supposed in the 

 United States first that Her Majesty's present Government have re- 

 solved to overrule the decision of the Government of 1845 and to 

 withdraw the privilege then granted to American fishermen to fish in 

 the Bay of Fundy ; and 2ndly that, notwithstanding the express terms 

 of the Treaty, American fishermen are privileged either by usage 

 or right to fish upon any part of the British coast within three marine 

 miles of the shore. 



