312 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



Urgent representations having been addressed to Her Majesty's Government 

 by the Governors of the British North American Provinces, in regard to these 

 encroachments, whereby the Colonial fisheries are most seriously prejudiced, 

 directions have been given by the Lords of Her Majesty's Admiralty, for sta- 

 tioning off New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. Prince Edward's Island, and in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, such a force of small sailing vessels and steamers as 

 shall be deemed sufficient to prevent the infraction of the Treaty. It is the 

 command of the Queen that the officers employed upon this service should be 

 especially enjoined to avoid all interference with the vessels of friendly Powers, 

 except where they are in the act of violating the Treaty, and on all occasions 

 to avoid giving ground of complaint by the adoption of harsh or unnecessary 

 proceedings when circumstances compel their arrest or seizure. 



Let us now see what force it is that has been sent into the field of 

 the dispute. There is the Buzzard, a steamer of six guns, the Sappho, 

 a sloop of twelve guns, and the Bermuda, a schooner of three guns, 

 sent to the Straits of Belle Isle, and on the coast of Newfoundland, 

 where we have an unquestioned right of fishing, and where there is 

 no controversy. Then there is the Devastation, a steamer of six 

 guns, the Arrow and the Telegraph, of one gun each, and the Nettley, 

 of two guns, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; making, in the whole, 

 seven vessels, with a total of thirty-one guns, sent by the Imperial 

 Government into these waters. If you add to this force the flag- 

 ship of Vice-Admiral Seymour, the Cumberland, with seventy guns, 

 there are, altogether one hundred and one guns. This is the naval 

 force which has been sent into the northeastern seas. 



Now, I desire the Senate to take notice what force was there before 



this great naval force was sent. Last year there was the flag- 



185 ship, the Cumberland, commanded by the same Sir Charles 



Seymour, with seventy guns, a frigate of twenty-six guns, 



two sloops of sixteen guns, and one steamer of six guns, making, in 



the whole, sixty-four guns, without the Cumberland, and, including 



the Cumberland, one hundred and thirty-four guns. 



Then this mighty naval demonstration, which has so excited the 

 Senate, and roused its indignation, and brought down its censures 

 upon the Administration, consists in a reduction of the naval force 

 which Great Britain had in those waters a year ago from one hun- 

 dred and thirty-four to one hundred and one guns. What the British 

 Government has done has been to withdraw some large steamers, 

 because they were not so useful in accomplishing the objects designed, 

 or because they would be more useful elsewhere, and to substitute in 

 their place a large number of inferior vessels, either more efficient 

 there, or less useful elsewhere. 



The Senate will understand me. I do not say this is the whole 

 force which is in those waters. There is an increase, I think, on the 

 whole, which is furnished by small vessels of the different provinces; 

 Canada having sent one; New Foundland one; Nova Scotia four. 

 But the question I am upon, and the real question now is, what the 

 Imperial Government has done, and so I say the British Government 

 has reduced the number of guns employed. 



Now, when this force was approaching, a letter from Sir John 

 Pakington, bearing somewhat the tone of a proclamation, appeared, 

 and at the moment was magnified and applauded by the Colonial 

 newspapers in a most bellicose manner, and before the letter of the 

 British Minister could have been read or received by the President 

 of the United States, an alarm went abroad throughout the fisheries 

 and along the northeastern coasts. It was exactly at the season when 



