DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 329 



thereupon, was not what the American fishermen required. It was 

 stated that they were in the habit of taking their fish in the great bays 

 at a greater distance than three miles from shore, of pickling it on 

 board their vessels and carrying it home to the American market. It 

 was thought therefore that it would be sufficient to procure for the 

 American fishermen the liberty of entering those bays to fish. 



2ndly. It was supposed that the only or at least the principal 

 market for British caught fish was the United States, where it is 

 consumed in considerable quantity, though subject to a duty of 20 

 per cent ad valorem, and that consequently an intimation that a pro- 

 hibitive duty might be imposed upon it would compel Her Majesty's 

 Government to accede to the terms proposed. 



Both these assumptions however turn out, upon more accurate in- 

 vestigation, to be entirely unfounded in fact. 



The close fishing or the power of following the fish within a mile 

 or half a mile of the coast is absolutely essential to the successful 

 prosecution of the mackerel fishery which is now the chief and most 

 lucrative branch of the trade, and were American fishermen to be 

 effectually excluded from this, they would be obliged to abandon the 

 pursuit altogether. No interpretation therefore of the Convention 

 of 1818 which could by possibility be contended for, or the extension 

 of the privilege accorded in regard to the Bay of Fundy to the other 

 British waters, would be of the least service to the American fishing 

 interest, and of this the United States Government is now, I believe, 

 perfectly aware. 



As regards the market to which British caught fish is brought, they 

 now find that they have equally been in error. The United States 

 is by no means the exclusive or most important market for the 

 commodity: by far the greatest consumption of it takes place at 

 Messina, Naples, in Portugal, in Brazil, and the Spanish and British 

 West India Islands. The demand for mackerel, on the other hand, 

 in the United States has very much increased, and the fisheries in 

 which it is taken in American waters are very inadequate to its sup- 

 ply; were American fishermen therefore prevented from taking it in 

 British waters, the consumer in the United States would either be 

 deprived of the article altogether, or obliged to pay a very heavy 

 duty on British caught fish. 



These considerations have rendered the United States Govern- 

 ment more than ever anxious to arrange this matter in the only 

 195 way in which it can be arranged satisfactorily to the American 

 interests concerned in it, that is to say, by negotiation upon 

 the basis which has been proposed by Her Majesty's Government ; and 

 I understand that strong efforts will be made in the course of the 

 present week to procure the passage of a resolution by Congress 

 which will empower the President to arrange the matter in this mode. 



I have the honour to be with the greatest respect, my Lord, 

 You Lordship's most obedient humble servant. 



JOHN F. CRAMPTON. 

 The Right Honourable, EARL or MALMESBFRY. 



&c. &c. &c. 



