DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 401 



No. 149. 1870, June 11 : Letter from Mr. Thornton, British Minister 

 at Washington, to Mr. Fish, United States Secretary of State. 



WASHINGTON, llth June, 1870. 



SIR, I had the honour to receive yesterday your note of the 8th 

 inst. relative to an apparent discrepancy between the instructions 

 issued by Vice-Admiral Wellesley, inclosed in my note of the 3rd 

 inst., and those given by the Admiralty to him, which accompanied 

 my note of the 26th ult. You are, however, quite right in not doubt- 

 ing that Admiral Wellesley, on the receipt of later instructions ad- 

 dressed to him on the 5th ult., will have modified the directions to the 

 officers under his command, so that they may be in conformity with 

 the views of the Admiralty. 



In confirmation of this I have since received a letter from Vice- 

 Admiral Wellesley, dated the 30th ult., informing me that he had 

 received instructions to the effect that officers of Her Majesty's ships 

 employed in the protection of the fisheries should not seize any vessel 

 unless it were evident and could be clearly proved that the offence 

 of fishing had been committed and the vessel itself captured within 

 three miles of land. 



I avail myself at the same time of the opportunity to point out 

 to you, in compliance with an instruction which I have received from 

 the Earl of Clarendon, that the Circular of the 16th ult., of your hon. 

 colleague the Secretary of the Treasury, respecting the Canadian 

 inshore fisheries may lead to future misunderstanding, inas- 

 239 much as it limits the maritime jurisdiction of the Dominion of 

 Canada to three marine miles from the shores thereof, without 

 regard to international usage which extends such jurisdiction over 

 creeks and bays, or to the stipulations of the Treaty of 1818, in which 

 the United States renounces the right of fishing within three miles, 

 not of the coast only, but of the bays, creeks or harbours of Her 

 Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America. 



I have, &c., (Signed) E. THORNTON. 



The Hon. H. FISH, 



&c. &c. &c. 



Xo. 150. 1870, June 30: Letter from Mr. Fish, United States Secre- 

 tary of State, to Mr. Thornton, British Minister at Washington. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 

 WASHINGTON, 30th June, 1870 



SIR; I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note 

 of the llth instant, in which you confirm my impression that Admiral 

 Wellesley will have modified the directions to the officers under his 

 command engaged in the protection of the Canadian Fisheries so 

 that they shall be in conformity with the views of the Admiralty, 

 and in which you point out under instructions from the lamented 

 Earl of Clarendon, that the circular of the 16th ultimo, issued by the 

 Secretary of the Treasury of the United States respecting the Cana- 

 dian inshore Fisheries may lead to further misunderstanding, inas- 

 much as it limits the maritime jurisdiction of the Dominion of 

 Canada to three marine miles from the shores thereof. 

 92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 4 36 



