422 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



I shall be obliged if you will inform me whether the recommenda- 

 tion above referred to will be carried into effect, and if this Govern- 

 ment will be at liberty to issue the circulars usual in such cases. 

 I have the honour to be with the highest consideration, Sir, 

 Your obedient servant, 



HAMILTON FISH 

 The Right Honourable 



Sir EDWARD THORNTON, K C B 



&c. &c. &c. 



No. 159. 1873, June 23: Letter from Sir E. Thornton to Earl Gran- 

 mile (British Foreign Secretary). 



No. 274. WASHINGTON, June $8, 1873. 



MY LORD: On the receipt of your Lordship's despatch No. 176 of 

 the 7th instant, I addressed a note, copy of which I have the honour 

 to inclose, to Mr. Fish, proposing to him to sign a Protocol to extend 

 Articles 18 to 25 of the Treaty of May 8, 1871 to the Colony of New- 

 foundland. In the note I forwarded a copy of the Act of the Legis- 

 lature of that Colony with reference to the Treaty: and I may here 

 observe that no date has been affixed to the copy of the Act which 

 was transmitted to me in your Lordship's despatch above mentioned, 

 so that in the event of Mr. Fish's agreeing to sign a Protocol, I should 

 probably be obliged to telegraph for it so as to be able to insert it 

 in the Protocol. 



On the same day I saw Mr. Fish at the State Department and 

 spoke to him about the Protocol. He replied that he doubted 

 whether he could agree to sign a Protocol with the proviso contained 

 at the end of the 1st section of the Newfoundland Act. He said that 

 no restrictions with regard to the right of fishing had been inserted 

 in the Treaty, nor in the Protocol which was signed on the 7th 

 instant, and whilst he would certainly be disinclined to sign another 

 Protocol for Newfoundland with the proviso of the Act without 

 knowing the exact restrictions to which it referred, he should even 

 hesitate to accept the Act in question as a law of the form required 

 by the Treaty to carry into operation Articles 18 to 25, inasmuch 

 as it spoke of restrictions to which the Treaty made no allusion. 



I replied that I understood that the proviso merely referred to 

 the seasons during which a particular class of fishing would be 

 allowed, and that naturally the same restrictions would be enforced 

 against Newfoundland as against American fishermen. I presumed 

 that the same rule would apply in American waters where British 

 subjects would be obliged to submit to the regulations already in 

 force or which might hereafter be established with regard to the 

 seasons and mode of fishing. I had observed that the Commissioner 

 appointed to inquire into the cause of the decrease of fish on the 

 coast of New Bngland, had already recommended some stringent 

 measures with a view to remedy the evil complained of, and I did 

 not doubt that Congress would pass a law, adopting the Commis- 

 sioner's recemmendations. 



