DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 527 



which is relied on, no law existed under which the seizure could be 

 justified. It will not be contended that Custom House Authorities 

 or Colonial Courts can seize and condemn vessels for a breach of the 

 stipulations of a Treaty, when no legislation exists which authorises 

 them to take cognizance of the subject, or invests them with any juris- 

 diction in the premises. Of this obvious conclusion the Canadian 

 authorities seem to be quite aware. I am informed that since the 

 seizures they have pressed, or are pressing, through the Canadian 

 Parliament in much haste an Act which is designed, for the first time 

 in the history of the legislation under this Treaty, to make the facts 

 upon which the American vessels have been seized illegal, and to 

 authorize proceedings against them therefor. 



What the effect of such an Act will be in enlarging the provisions 

 of an existing Treaty between the United States and Great Britain 

 need not be considered here. The question under discussion depends 

 upon the Treaty, and upon such legislation, warranted by the Treaty, 



as existed when the seizures took place. 



315 The practical construction given to the Treaty down to the 



present time has been in entire accord with the conclusions 

 thus deduced from the Act of Parliament. The British Government 

 has repeatedly refused to allow interference with American fishing 

 vessels, unless for illegal fishing, and has given explicit orders to the 

 contrary. 



On the 26th May, 1870, Mr. Thornton, the British Minister at 

 Washington, communicated officially to the Secretary of State of 

 the United States copies of the orders addressed by the British Ad- 

 miralty to Admiral Wellesley, commanding Her Majesty's naval 

 forces on the North American Station, and of a letter from the Colo- 

 nial Department to the Foreign Office, in order that the Secretary 

 might " see the nature of the instructions to be given to Her Majesty s 

 and the Canadian officers employed in maintaining order at the fish- 

 eries in the neighbourhood of the coasts of Canada." Among the 

 documents thus transmitted is a letter from the Foreign Office to the 

 Secretary of the Admiralty, in which the following language is 

 contained: 



The Canadian Government has recently determined, with the concurrence of 

 Her Majesty's Ministers, to increase the stringency of the existing practice of 

 dispensing with the warnings hitherto given, and seizing at once any vessel 

 detected in violating the law. 



In view of this change, and of the questions to which it may give rise. I am 

 directed by Lord Granville to request that you will move their Lordships to 

 instruct the officers of Pier Majesty's ships employed in the protection of the 

 fisheries that they are not to seize any vessel unless it is evident, and can be 

 clearly proved, that the offence of fishing has been committed, and the vessel 

 itself captured, within three miles of land. 



In the letter from the Lords of the Admiralty to Vice-Admiral 

 Wellesley of the 5th May, 1870. in accordance with the foregoing 

 request, and transmitting the letter above quoted from, there occurs 

 the following language: 



My Lords desire me to remind you of the extreme importance of Command- 

 ing Officers of the ships selected to protect the fisheries exercising the utmost 

 discretion in carrying out their instructions, paying speci.-il attention to Lord 

 Granville's observation, that no vessel should be seized unless it is evident, a d 

 can be clearly proved, that the offence of fishing has beeu committed, and that 

 the vessel is captured within three miles of laud. 



