328 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



the excited feelings which seem to have grown out of this vexed 

 question of the fisheries, and which I trust, may soon be amicably 

 disposed of, and in a way alike honourable to the two nations. 

 I have &c. 



(Signed) M. C. PERRY. 



Vice Adml. Sir GEORGE SEYMOUR 



Commander in Chief* 



194 No. 110. 185%, August 23: Letter from Mr. Crampton to the 

 Earl of Malmesbury. 



No. 134. WASHINGTON. 23rd. August. 1852. 



MY LORD: The official communication in regard to the measures 

 taken for the protection of the British fisheries which Mr. Webster 

 informed me he was about to make to this Legation, has not yet been 

 addressed to me. 



The subject nevertheless continues to occupy much of the atten- 

 tion of Congress and of the public. 



This hesitation on Mr. Webster's part is no doubt to be attributed 

 to the embarrassing position in which the United States Govern- 

 ment now finds itself placed in respect to this question. The excite- 

 ment in regard to it is still very great. Mr. Webster would no doubt 

 be very willing to arrange the matter by a negotiation with Her 

 Majesty's Government embracing the whole subject of reciprocity 

 of trade with the North American Colonies, but a strong objection 

 is felt to this mode of arrangement in many quarters, and a strong 

 feeling seems to prevail against it in Congress, which, on the other 

 hand, being about to separate, is not prepared to take any legislative 

 measures for a settlement of the question. 



Under these circumstances some other means of putting the matter 

 upon a footing satisfactory to the American interests engaged in it 

 were looked for ; but the more correct information which has lately 

 been obtained in regard to the real facts of the case and their bear- 

 ing on those interests, has added very much to the embarrassment 

 already felt in regard to an independent solution of the difficulty. 



The position which I have reason to think was intended to be taken 

 by the United States Government in their proposed communication 

 to me was 



1st. to contest the correctness of the British construction of the 

 Convention of 1818 as regards the definition of bays, and to insist on 

 the justice of an extension of the relaxation of that construction 

 which was conceded by Her Majesty's Government in 1845 as it re- 

 garded the Bay of Fundy, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



2ndly. to endeavour to obtain for American fishing vessels the right 

 of passing through the Gut of Canso, as necessary to a free access 

 to that gulf; and 



3rdly. to urge as a motive for these concessions, the disposition of 

 Congress to impose a prohibitive duty, in case of refusal, on British 

 caught fish, on importation into the United States. 



These intended demands and the accompanying threat were based 

 upon the two following assumptions: 



1st. That the close fishing within three miles of the shore of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence and the privilege of landing and curing fish 



