536 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



In the following year Canada (then become a Dominion and 

 united to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) was thrown back on the 

 Convention of 1818. and obliged to fit out a Marine Police to enforce 

 the laws and defend her rights. Still desiring, however, to cultivate 

 friendly relations with her great neighbour, and not too suddenly to 

 deprive American fishermen of their accustomed fishing grounds and 

 means of livelihood, she readily acquiesced in the proposal of Her 

 Majesty's Government for the temporary issue of annual licenses to 

 fish, on payment of a moderate fee. Your Excellency is aware of the 

 failure of that scheme. A few licenses were issued at first, but the 

 applications for them soon ceased, and the American fishermen per- 

 sisted in forcing themselves into our waters without leave or license. 



Then came the recurrence, in an aggravated form, of all the trou- 

 bles which had occurred anterior to the Reciprocity Treaty. There 

 were invasions of our waters, personal conflicts between our fisher- 

 men and American crews, the destruction of nets, the seizure and 

 condemnation of vessels, and intense consequent irritation on both 

 sides. This was happily put an end to by the Washington Treaty of 

 1871. In the interval between the termination of the first Treaty 

 and the ratification of that by which it was evidently [eventually] 

 replaced, Canada on several occasions pressed without success, 

 through the British Minister at Washington, for a renewal of the 

 Reciprocity Treaty, or for the negotiation of another on a still 

 wider basis. 



When, in 1874, Sir Edward Thornton, then British Minister at 

 Washington, and the late Hon. George Brown, of Toronto, were 

 appointed joint Plenipotentiaries for the purpose of negotiating and 

 concluding a Treaty relating to " Fisheries, Commerce and Naviga- 

 tion," a Provisional Treaty was arranged by them with the United 

 States' Government, but the Senate decided that it was not expedient 

 to ratify it, and the negotiation fell to the ground. 



The Treaty of Washington, while it failed to restore the provisions 

 of the Treaty of 1854 for reciprocal free trade (except in fish), at 

 least kept the peace, and there was tranquility along our shores until 

 July. 1885, when it was terminated again by the United States' Gov- 

 ernment and not by Great Britain. 



With a desire to show that she wished to be a good neighbour and 

 in order to prevent loss and disappointment on the part of the United 

 States' fishermen by their sudden exclusion from her waters in the 

 middle of the fi-hing season, Canada continued to allow them for 

 six months all the advantages which the rescinded Fishery Clauses 

 had previously given them, although her people received from the 

 United States none of the corresponding advantages which the 

 Treaty of 1871 h?,d declared to be an equivalent for the benefits 

 secured thereby to the American fishermen. 



The President in return for this courtesy promised to recommend 

 to Congress the appointment of a joint commission by the two Gov- 

 ernments of the United Kingdom and the United States to consider 

 the Fishery question, with permission also to consider the whole state 

 of the trade relations between the United States and Canada. 



This promise was fulfilled by the President, but the Senate rejected 

 his recommendation and refused to sanction the Commission. 



Under these circumstances, Canada, having exhausted every effort 

 to procure an amicable arrangement, has been driven again to fall 



