DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 455 



authority is as serious and extensive in practical relations as it is in 

 principle. The rude application made to the twenty vessels in For- 

 tune Bay of this asserted authority, in January last, drove them from 

 the profitable prosecution of their projected cruizes. By the same 

 reason the entire inshore fishery is held by us upon the same tenure 

 of dependence upon the Parliament of the Dominion or the Legisla- 

 tures of the several Provinces. 



I cannot but regret that this vital question has presented itself so 

 unexpectedly to this Government, and at a date so near the period at 

 which this Government, upon a comparison of views with Her Maj- 

 esty's Government, is to pass upon the conformity of the proceed- 

 ings of the Halifax Commission with the requirements of the Treaty 

 of Washington. The present question is wholly aside from the con- 

 siderations bearing upon that subject, and which furnishes the topic 

 of my recent dispatch. 



In the opinion of this Government it is essential that we should at 

 once invite the attention of Lord Salisbury to the question of Pro- 

 vincial control over the fishermen of the United States, in their 

 prosecution of the privilege secured to them by the Treaty. So grave 

 a question, in its bearing upon the obligations of this Government 

 under the Treaty, makes it necessary that the President should ask 

 from Her Majesty's Government a frank avowal or disavowal of the 

 paramount authority of Provincial legislation to regulate the enjoy- 

 ment by our people of the inshore fishery, which seems to be inti- 

 mated, if not asserted, in Lord Salisbury's note. 



Before the receipt of a reply from Her Majesty's Government it 

 would be premature to consider what should be the course of this 

 Government should this limitation upon the Treaty privileges of the 

 United States be insisted upon by the British Government as their 



construction of the Treaty. 



271 You will communicate this despatch to Lord Salisbury by 

 reading the same to him, and leaving with him a copy. 

 I am, &c. 



(Signed) WM. M. EVARTS. 



No. 169. 1878, November 7 : Letter from the Marquis of Salisbury 

 (British Foreign Secretary) to Mr. Welsh. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, November 7, 1878. 



SIR, Her Majesty's Government have had under their considera- 

 tion the despatch from Mr. Evarts, dated the 28th September, and 

 communicated to me on the 12th ultimo, respecting the complaints 

 made by the Government of the United States of the injuries sus- 

 tained by American fishermen in Fortune Bay in January last. 



This despatch is in reply to my letter of the 23rd August, in which 

 I forwarded a copy of the Report furnished by Captain Sulivan, of 

 Her Majesty's ship " Sirius," on the occurrences in question. Mr. 

 Evarts now remarks that the United States' Government have not 

 been put in possession of the depositions which form the basis of that 

 Report, and are unable, therefore, to say whether, upon their con- 

 sideration, the view which the Government of the United States takes 



