DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 569 



directed to inform all masters of fishing vessels that the authorities 

 of the Dominion of Canada had resolved to terminate the system of 

 granting fishing licenses to foreign vessels. 



The circular proceeds to state the terms of the Treaty of 1818, in 

 order that United States' fishermen might be informed of the limita- 

 tion thereby placed on their privileges. It proceeds further to set 

 out at large the Canadian Act of 1868, relating to fishing by foreign 

 vessels, which has been hereinbefore referred to. 



The fishermen of the United States were by that circular ex- 

 pressly warned of the nature of the Canadian Statute which it is now 

 once more pretended is without force, but no intimation was given 

 to those fishermen that these provisions were nugatory, and would 

 be resisted by the United States Government. Lest there should be 

 any misapprehension on that subject, however, on 9th June of the 

 same year, less than a month after that circular, another circular was 

 issued from the same Department, stating again the terms of the 

 Treaty of 1818, and these containing the following paragraph : 



Fishermen of United States are bound to respect the British laws for the 

 regulation and preservation of the fisheries, to the same extent to which they 

 are applicable to British and Canadian fishermen. 



The same circular, noticing the change made in the Canadian Fish- 

 ery Act of 1868, by the amendment of 1870, makes this observation : 



It will be observed that the warning formerly given is not required under 

 the amended Act, but that vessels trespassing are liable to seizure without such 

 warning. 



THE CANADIAN STATUTE OF 1886. 



Mr. Phelps is again under an erroneous impression, with regard to 

 the Statute introduced at the last session of the Dominion Parliament. 



He is informed that " since the seizure the Canadian authorities 

 have pressed, or are pressing, through the Canadian Parliament, in 

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

 tory of the Legislation, under this Treaty, to make the facts upon 

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

 proceedings against them therefor." 



The following observations are appropriate in relation to this 

 passage of Mr. Phelps' letter : 



1. The Act which he refers to, was not passed with haste. It was 

 passed through the two Houses in the usual manner, and with the 

 observance ot all the usual forms. Its passage occupied probably 

 more time than was occupied in the passage through the Congress of 

 the United States, of a measure which possesses much the same char- 

 acter, and which will be referred to hereafter. 

 340 2. The Act has no bearing on the seizures referred to. 



3. It does not make any act illegal which was legal before, 

 but declares what penalty attaches to the offences which were already 

 prohibited. 



It may be observed, in reference to the charges of " undue haste " 

 and of " legislating for the first time in the history of the legislation 

 under the Treaty," that before the Statute referred to had become 

 law the United States' Congress passed a Statute containing the 

 following section : 



That whenever any foreign country whose vessels have been placed on the 

 same footing in the ports of United States as American vessels (the coastwise 

 trade excepted) shall deny to any vessels of the United States any of the com- 



