DESPATCHES, REPORTS. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 409 



from such high authority as the President, that Canada had acted in 

 an unfriendly way to the citizens of the United States. 



It is, in the opinion of the Committee of the Privy Council, a cir- 

 cumstance that ought to be adverted to in connection with this most 

 important subject, that in the same Message the President had 

 previously stated it as his opinion, that " the time is not probably far 

 distant when, in the natural course of events, the European political 

 connection with this continent will cease," and had, when referring 

 to the contemplated acquisition of San Domingo by the United States, 

 given as one reason for such acquisition, " it is to promote honest 

 means of paying our honest debts, without over-taxing the people." 

 Her Majesty's Government cannot be unaware that the acquisition of 

 Canada, and the consequent annihilation of British power and 

 influence on this continent, is held by many influential American 

 statesmen to be the " manifest destiny " of their country, and to be 

 an object, the accomplishment of which they think themselves justified 

 in promoting by every kind of pressure that they can bring to bear 

 on Her Majesty's Canadian subjects. Under such circumstances, and 

 with a distinct recommendation from the President of the United 

 States to the Senate and House of Representatives, that they should 

 confer upon the Executive the power to suspend the operation of the 

 laws authorizing the transit of goods, wares, and merchandise, in bond, 

 across the territory of the United States to Canada, and also to sus- 

 pend the operation of any laws whereby Canadian vessels are per- 

 mitted to enter the waters of the United States, the Committee of the 

 Privy Council feel it their duty to request your Excellency to trans- 

 mit to Her Majesty's Government their views on the subjects adverted 

 to in the Message of the President of the United States, in which 

 Canada is interested. 



The Committee of the Privy Council readily acknowledge that the 

 execution of the President's threat of abolishing the bonding system, 

 and of excluding Canadian vessels from American waters, would 

 inflict serious inconvenience and loss on Her Majesty's Canadian sub- 

 jects; but they feel assured that such inconvenience and loss would be 

 borne with fortitude by the people of the Dominion, and they enter- 

 tain little doubt that such a policy as that which has been recom- 

 mended by the President, avowedly in retaliation of the measuras 

 adopted by the Imperial and Canadian Governments for the protec- 

 tion of the British fisheries during last season, would ere long lead to 

 a reaction in the United States, many of whose citizens would be as 

 deeply injured as Her Majesty's Canadian subjects by a policy of 

 non-intercourse. 



The Committee of the Privy Council trust that Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment will not be influenced in the slightest degree by the threats of 

 the President. They feel assured that Her Majesty's Government 

 will believe that it is the earnest desire of the Government and people 

 of Canada to maintain the most friendly relations with the citizens of 

 the United States. They venture to hope that in the various discus- 

 sions which have taken place between the Imperial and Canadian 

 Governments, on the points in controversy between Great Britain 

 and the United States, your Excellency's advisers have shown them- 

 selves ready and willing to regulate their policy by that of the 

 Imperial Government. 



