314 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



American to the British Government. So, then, it appears that 

 nothing has been negotiated away at the cannon's mouth, because 

 there has been no negotiation at all, either at the cannon's mouth or 

 elsewhere. There has been no negotiation under duress, because there 

 has been no pretence of a design by the Imperial Government to 

 enforce its rigourous construction of the Convention of 1818, or to de- 

 part from the position of neutrality, if I may so call it, always 

 heretofore maintained. All the change is, that, in August, 1851, the 

 British Government had one hundred and thirty-four guns on that 

 station ; and now, in August, 1852, it has one hundred and one guns ; 

 and this famous Sir Charles Seymour, who sweeps away, not only 

 fishermen's smacks, but also the icebergs coming down from Hudson's 

 Bay and off the coast of Labrador, with his " broom," is the Admiral 

 of the whole station of British North America a field of duty which 

 reaches from Central America to the North Pole. He has two head- 

 quarters: one at Bermuda, in the winter; and the other at Halifax, 

 in the summer. This same Admiral Seymour was in the same seas 

 with his broom last year, just as he is this year, and yet he excited 

 no alarm then. He has four trusts to execute for his Government 

 with the small force at his command, of which his flag-ship con- 

 stitutes the largest portion. The first of these is to protect 

 186 British rights in the vicinity of Cuba, just as the United States 

 last year sent a vessel to maintain their rights and perform 

 their duties there. His next duty is to secure British rights at Grey- 

 town, just exactly as the United States ought to have had a vessel 

 there to secure their rights. The third duty is to watch Soulouque, 

 the Emperor of Hayti, to prevent him from subjugating the Domini- 

 can colony, which the British Government is bound to do by an 

 arrangement existing between the United States, Great Britain, and 

 France; and the fourth duty is to protect British rights in these 

 fisheries against encroachments and abuses by whomsoever may 

 come along. The season of fishing is in the summer ; and, therefore, 

 the Admiral arrives at Halifax with his broom during that season, 

 and perhaps, also, he comes north, because the weather is more 

 pleasant. 



There have been since that time, some seizures, four or five. I 

 believe; but, in this there has been nothing new. I have before me 

 a list of seizures of American vessels for the violation of the provi- 

 sions of the Convention of 1818, from the year 1839 to the year 1851. 

 They amount in the whole to twenty-eight vessels, and it is insisted 

 by the Imperial Government that they were all made on the grounds 

 of violation and abuses of the Convention of 1818, as constructed 

 by ourselves. There may have been mistakes, and probably, in- 

 stances of oppression, but the British Government is understood 

 to have disclaimed any such. More or less of these seizures have 

 been brought to the notice of the Government of the United States 

 from 1839 to this time. Yet there has been no war no declaration 

 of war, but, on the contrary, there has been the most pacific spirit 

 on both sides which could be imagined. In 1836, Mr. Forsyth, the 

 then Secretary of State, was so pacific and friendly, that he in- 

 formed Mr. Bankhead, by direction of the President, that masters, 

 owners, and others, engaged in the fisheries," were to be informed 

 by the collectors " that complaints had been made, and that they were 

 enjoined" to the strict limits assigned for taking fish under the 



