318 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



if provincial newspapers are authority on one side of a case, I am 

 sure that they are equally so on the other. I am very happy to pro- 

 duce such, for the purpose of restoring the equanimity of the Senate. 

 I read from the New Brunswicker, a provincial paper of the date of 

 August 3, 1852 : 



Nearly all the American papers we have seen labor under the erroneous 

 impression that the Imperial Government is about to enforce the legal con- 

 struction given to the Convention of 1818 by the Crown Officers of England, 

 and prevent Americans from fishing, except at the distance of three marine 

 miles outside of lines drawn from headland to headland. We have good 

 authority for asserting that such is not the case. It is quite true that since the 

 opinion of the Attorney General and Advocate General of England was given 

 upon the case submitted by the Legislature of Nova Scotia, the Government 

 of that colony, upon the urgent request of the fishermen, has evinced a desire 

 to carry out the extreme legal view of that Convention ; but the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment has steadily refused to take that view of the case, conceiving that 

 American fishermen might properly claim to fish anywhere outside of three 

 miles of any part of the coasts of British North America, 'even within bays 

 more than six miles wide. 



Acting under this impression, the Imperial Government has for some years 

 sent a few sloops of war, or other smaller armed vessels, to cruize during the 

 fishing season along the shores of the Colonies, to prevent foreign vessels from 

 fishing within three miles of the land. But these vessels had each such a large 

 extent of coast to watch over, that the duty of keeping foreign fishermen 

 three miles from the land was indifferently performed; and the trespasses and 

 encroachments have consequently increased every year, until they could be 

 borne no longer. The Colonies found they must take the affair into their own 

 hands, or else abandon their shore fisheries to the people of the United States, 

 who, by the Convention of 1818, " renounced for-ever any liberty theretofore 

 enjoyed or claimed to take, dry, or cure fish in or within three marine miles 

 of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of Her Majesty's Dominions in 

 America." 



It was owing to these determined movements on the part of the Colonies that 

 the Imperial Government resolved upon giving efficient assistance to protect 

 the North American fisheries; and this assistance was offered, as our neigh- 

 bours will soon learn, not with the view of enforcing the rigid legal construction 

 given to the Convention, but absolutely to prevent the Colonial cruizers from 

 carrying out that very construction, thereby incurring the risk of unpleasant 

 collisions with the vessels of a foreign but friendly Power. It was to insure 

 the continuance of peace, and prevent the possibility of hostile encounters, that 

 the Imperial Government has dispatched its vessels to the shores of North 

 America. 



Sir, there was a presumption, which, it seems to me, we ought to 

 have admitted, that would have prevailed against the sounding forth 

 of these idle alarms. For one, I want no evidence that England de- 

 sires, and is determined, to maintain her power wherever she can, 

 and to fortify and extend it over the world wherever she may. con- 

 sistently with the rights of other nations, and, perhaps, without a 

 very careful regard, in all instances, to those rights. But, on the 

 other hand, I want no evidence to satisfy me that England desires 

 peace with the United States. 



The vast commerce of the world is practically divided between 

 these two capital maritime Powers, and is as yet largely in the hands 

 of England. The British Nation is a mercantile one. We also are a 

 mercantile people with whom England deals largely, and we are 

 agents in carrying on a large portion of the commerce o^ England 

 with other countries. The trade between the two countries employs 

 ten thousand American vessels, and nine thousand British vessels, 

 with an aggregate tonnage of three million tons. The comfort and 

 welfare and happiness of the British Nation depend, as do our own 



