392 



APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



hitherto been exercised under the Reciprocity Treaty. It does not, 

 therefore, call for much observation. It is only requisite to say that 

 although the privilege of drying and curing fish on the Magdalen 

 Islands is not expressly given to American fishermen, Her Majesty's 

 Government have no desire at present to exclude them from it, nor 

 to impose any narrow construction on the word " unsettled." A bay 

 containing a few isolated houses is not to be considered as " settled " 

 for the purpose of this clause of the Convention. 



On the other hand, naval officers should be aware that Americans 

 who exercise their right of fishing in Colonial waters in common with 

 subjects of Her Majesty, are also bound, in common with those sub- 

 jects, to obey the law of the country, including such Colonial laws as 

 have been passed to insure the peaceable and profitable enjoyment of 

 the fisheries by all persons entitled thereto. 



The enforcement of the Co- 

 lonial laws must be left, as far as 

 the exercise of rights on shore is 

 concerned, to the Colonial author- 

 ities, by whom Her Majesty's 

 Government desire they shall be 

 enforced with great forebearance, 

 especially during the present sea- 

 son. In all cases they must be 

 enforced with much forbearance 

 and consideration, and they must 

 not be enforced at all by Im- 

 perial officers if they appear cal- 

 culated to place the Americans at 

 a disadvantage in comparison 

 with British fishermen in the 

 waters which, by the Treaty of 

 1818, are opened to vessels of the 

 United States. On the contrary, 

 their unequal operation should, 

 in this case, be reported to their 

 Lordships, a copy of the report 

 being at the same time sent to the 

 Governor of the Colony. 



II. Fuller explanation is nec- 

 essary respecting that part of the 

 Convention by which the United 

 States renounce the right of fish- 

 ing, except within the permitted 

 limits " on or within three miles 

 of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, 

 or harbours" of British North 

 America, and are forbidden to 

 enter such bays or harbours, ex- 

 cept for certain defined purposes. 



234 B. In all cases in which The Act of Parliament (59 



inconvenience would arise Geo. Ill, cap. 38), already men- 



from the Clause in the Colonial tioned, subjects to forfeiture any 



Acts which prescribes the deliv- foreign vessel which is found 



A. The Report here directed is 

 to be forwarded to me in tripli- 

 cate for transmission to the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Admiralty. 



