DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 301 



posed to exist in it, and surrendered everything, when they thought 

 that, without endangering any substantial interest, they had secured 

 so much that was valuable and good, I am at loss to conceive. A more 

 matured appreciation of that instrument will reclaim, I have no 

 doubt, Mr. Webster from his error, and redeem our Envoys and their 

 illustrious compeer from the foul stain which for" a time seemed to 

 darken their diplomatic escutcheon. 



The Convention of 1818, therefore, excludes us from no part of the 

 littoral seas washing Her Majesty's Dominions, without three marine 

 miles of the coast of such littoral seas, be they bays, gulfs, or other 

 inlets, unless the coast bordering the same be all under her sover- 

 eignty, and unless the strait formed by the headlands at their en- 

 trance exceeds six miles in length. The question is here entirely 

 solved and put at rest. It only remains to be ascertained how distant 

 be the headlands at the entrance of the Bays of Fundy, of Chaleurs, 

 and elsew r here. Are they more widely apart than six miles? Then 

 the bays are as open and free as the main ocean itself. Are they 

 within the line of the six miles? Then they are private bays, bays 

 shut up from the commerce of the rest of mankind, at the will of the 

 riparious Sovereign, provided he be the Lord of the whole coast sur- 

 rounding them, and not otherwise. Now, we know that is not the 

 case with the bays just named. Both have an entrance too wide to 

 be claimed as private seas ; and independent of this, the Bay of Fundy 

 is bounded in part by the State of Maine, a circumstance which alone 

 would preclude all pretentions on the part of England to make it 

 hers. I am done with this part of my subject. 



The next question which naturally calls my attention is, What can 

 have been the object of the British Government in arraying within 

 sight of the fishing grounds the imposing armaments whose appear- 

 ance has created such alarm among our fishermen, and so much 

 sharpened the susceptibilities of this whole nation? We have no reli- 

 able data on which to base even an approximation. Many are the 

 surmisers and many the surmises. Some suppose that the object 

 was to stir up and stimulate the languid energies of our diplomacy 

 in reference to certain negotiations about to be reopened with the 

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

 which the commerce of the British North American Colony is here- 

 after to be carried on. I use the language of Sir John Pakington 

 and of the Vice Admiral commanding the forces now plying within 

 the waters of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, as quoted by Mr. Web- 

 ster himself; others consider the movement as having originated 

 in the arrogant and inconsiderate policy of Her Majesty's Ministers, 

 and in their desire to manifest, through some bold and striking ex- 

 hibition of zeal and earnestness, their anxiety to pay a long-arreared 

 debt to the undeviating toryism of the Colonies by a tender of every 

 protection it may be in the power of the Imperial Government to 

 afford; others again have thought that those demonstrations were 

 made with a view to strike terror in the minds of the colonists, sup- 

 posed to be disaffected on accoifnt of their failing to obtain the privi- 

 lege they had asked to build a railroad from Halifax to Quebec; 

 and there are those, lastly, who cannot be persuaded that the whole 

 is not a deeply-laid game to try us in a diplomatic conflict, and ascer- 

 tain how far we may feel inclined to surrender this main dependence 

 of our naval strength and important element of our national wealth. 



