DESPATCHES, BEPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 311 



their fishermen bounties amounting to about $300,000 a year and 

 they impose a duty of twenty per cent, on foreign fish. The Colonial 

 fishermen claimed of the new Ministry, as they had been in the 

 habit of claiming of the old Ministry, the assent of the Royal Govern- 

 ment to the granting of bounties; and they complained to the new 

 Ministry, as they had been in the habit of complaining to the old one, 

 of the encroachments of the American fishermen. The Colonial au- 

 thorities last year, by reports and resolutions threatened retaliation 

 against the United States in some form, if these claims and com- 

 plaints should be disregarded. 



Under these circumstances, the Imperial Government, in 1851, pro- 

 posed to the President of the United States to negotiate concerning 

 the questions raised by the British Colonies, and submitted, through 

 Sir Henry Bulwer, a schedule of the terms or principles upon which 

 that Government would negotiate, for the purpose of settling what 

 they were pleased to call the commercial intercourse between the 

 Provinces and the United States. The President of the United States 

 altogether declined to negotiate; and he referred the subject to the 

 Congress of the United States in his annual message of December 

 last, in these words : 



Your attention is again invited to the question of reciprocal trade between 

 the United States and Canada and other British Possessions near our frontier. 

 Overtures for a Convention upon this subject have been received from Her 

 Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary, but it seems to be in many re- 

 spects preferable that the matter should be regulated by reciprocal legislation. 

 Documents are laid before you, showing the terms which the British Govern- 

 ment is willing to offer, and the measures which it may adopt, if some arrange- 

 ment upon this subject shall not be made. 



Thus, in December last, was Congress invited by the President to 

 consider the subject out of which all the present difficulties have 

 arisen ; and we then had this notice from the British Ministry, viz : 



Her Majesty's Government are prepared, on certain conditions and with cer- 

 tain reservations, to make the concession to which so much importance seems 

 to have been attached by Mr. Clayton, namely to throw open to the fishermen 

 of the United States the fisheries in the waters of the British North American 

 Colonies, with permission to those fishermen to land on the coasts of those col- 

 onies, for the purpose of drying their nets and curing their fish : provided that, 

 in so doing, they do not interfere with the owners of private property, or with 

 the operations of British fishermen. 



Congress did nothing, said nothing, thought nothing on the subject. 

 The Colonies, in the mean time, continued to complain of encroach- 

 ments, and continued to demand the consent of the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment to the granting of bounties. The Imperial Government an- 

 swered that to remove the complaints of the Colonies, they would 

 not object to measures being taken by the Colonies themselves for the 

 granting of bounties, and they would send an additional force to 

 protect them against encroachments. Such a force was sent, and, 

 simultaneously with sending it, the British Minister here, on the 5th 

 of July last, informed the President of its coming, and its object, in 

 the following communication : 



I have been directed by Her Majesty's Government to bring to the knowledge 

 of the Government of the United States a measure which has been adopted by 

 Her Majesty's Government to prevent a repetition of the complaints which have 

 so frequently been made of the encroachments of vessels belonging to citizens 

 of the United States and of France upon the fishing grounds reserved to Great 

 Britain by the Convention of 1818. 



