DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 531 



the terms of the Convention of 1818. He entered into a long argu- 

 ment to show that seizure was not provided for by law as a penalty 

 for the infraction of this clause; that what was provided for was a 

 punishment for American vessels fishing within the forbidden limits. 

 He said that his Government could not admit the interpretation 

 which apparently was accepted by the Canadian Government, and 

 he mentioned the fact that in any case the American fishermen had 

 no notice of the action that was going to be taken. As to the latter 

 point, I replied that that was not the fault of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment. On the 18th March I had telegraphed to you to ask you to 

 request the Secretary of State to issue a Notice such as we were 

 about to issue to Canadian fishermen, and he had declined to do so. 

 Mr. Phelps w T as not aware of this. I went on to say that the view 

 of the American Government appeared to be this : " You are to ac- 

 cept our interpretation of the Treaty, whether it be yours or not, 

 and in any case we will not negotiate with you." I said that that 

 was not a tenable proposition. Mr. Phelps said that it was quite 

 true that his Government, owing to circumstances of which I was 

 aware, had not been able to negotiate, but as regarded the Treaty, 

 he felt sure that he would be able to convince me that the American 

 interpretation was correct. I said that, as regards the circumstances 

 to which he had alluded, we had only to look to the United States' 

 Government, and could not look beyond it. He would remember 

 that at almost our first interview on my accession to office I had pro- 

 posed to him to endeavour to procure the continuation of the recent 

 arrangement for a year, although that arrangement was disadvan- 

 tageous to Canada in that it gave the United States all it wanted 

 and gave Canada nothing in return. We had also pressed on the 

 United States' Government the issue of a joint commission to investi- 

 gate the matter, and that had also been refused. Further, on the 

 24th May, I made a proposal, personally indeed, but with all the 

 weight which my official character could give, that Canadian action 

 should be suspended, and negotiations should commence, and to this 

 1 had receive no reply. In these circumstances, I could not feel that 

 Her Majesty's Government had been wanting in methods of concili- 

 ation, and I begged him to send me his statement of his case as 

 quickly as possible, for in the meantime there was such unanimity 

 among our Legal Advisers as to the interpretation of the Treaty of 

 1818 that I had nothing to submit to them. As regards the cases 

 themselves, I had as yet no details, nor was I in possession of the 

 Bill or of the Circular to which Mr. Bayard's recent telegram 

 referred. 



J am, &c., 



(Sd.) ROSEBERY. 



No. 197. 1886, June 5: Report of the Canadian Minister of Marine 



and Fisheries. 



DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES, 



Canada, Ottawa, June 5th, 1886. 



With reference to a despatch from the British Minister at Wash- 

 ington, to his Excellency the Governor General, dated 21st May last, 

 and enclosing a letter from Mr. Secretary Bayard, regarding the 



