DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 597 



ments to the west of them. It was on this area only, as well as on 

 Great Britain, that the recognitions and guarantees of the treaty were 

 at first to operate. Yet comparatively small as this field may now 

 seem, it was to the preservation over it of certain reciprocal rights 

 that the attention of the negotiators was mainly given. And the 

 chief of these rights were: (1) the fisheries, a common enjoyment in 

 which by both parties took nothing from the property of either ; and 

 (2) the preservation to the citizens or subjects of each country of 

 title to property in the other. 



Since Lord Shelburne's premiership this system of reciprocity and 

 mutual convenience has progressed under the treaties of 1842 and 

 1846, so as to give to Her Majesty's subjects, as well as to citizens 

 of the United States, the free use of the River Detroit, on both sides 

 of the island Bois Blanc, and between that island and the American 

 and Canadian shores, and all the several channels and passages be- 

 tween the various islands lying near the junction of the River St. 

 Clair with the lake of that name. By the treaty of 1846 the principle 

 of common border privileges was extended to the Pacific Ocean. The 

 still existing commercial articles of the treaty of 1871 further ampli- 

 fied those mutual benefits, by embracing the use of the inland water- 

 ways of either country, and defining enlarged privileges of bonded 

 transit by land and water through the United States for the benefit 

 of the inhabitants of the Dominion. And not only by treaties has 

 the development of Her Majesty's American dominion, especially to 

 the westward, been aided by the United States, but the vigorous con- 

 temporaneous growth under the enterprise and energy of citizens of 

 the Northwestern States and Territories of the United States has 

 been productive of almost equal advantages to the adjacent posses- 

 sions of the British Crown, and the favoring legislation by Congress 

 has created benefits in the way of railway facilities which under the 

 sanction of State laws have been and are freely and beneficially en- 

 joyed by the inhabitants of the Dominion and their Government. 



Under this system of energetic and co-operative development the 

 Coast of the Pacific has been reached by the transcontinental lines 

 of railway within the territorial limits of the respective countries, 

 and, as I have stated, the United States being the pioneers in this 

 remarkable progress, have been happily able to anticipate and inci- 

 dentally to promote the subsequent success of their neighbors in Brit- 

 ish America. 



It will be scarcely necessary for you to say to Lord Iddesleigh that 

 the United States, in thus aiding in the promotion of the prosperity, 

 and in establishing the security of Her Majesty's Canadian domin- 

 ions, claims no particular credit. It was prompted, in thus opening 

 its territory to Canadian use, and incidentally for Canadian growth, 

 in large measure by the consciousness that such good offices are part 

 of a system of mutual convenience and advantage growing up under 

 the treaties of peace and assisted by the natural forces of friendly 

 contiguity. Therefore it is that we witness with surprise and painful 

 apprehension the United States fishermen hampered in their enjoy- 

 ment of their undoubted rights in the fisheries. 



The hospitalities of Canadian coasts and harbors, which are ours 

 by ancient right, and which these treaties confirm, cost Canada noth- 

 ing and are productive of advantage to her people. Yet, in defiance 

 of the most solemn obligations, in utter disregard of the facilities and 



