DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 639 



On October 30, 1886, a committee of the Canadian Privy Council 

 contended, and the administrator of the government in council 

 upheld the contention: 



That the convention of 1818, while it grants to United States' fishermen the 

 right of fishing in common with British subjects on the shores of the Magdalen 

 Islands, does not confer upon them privileges of trading or of shipping men, 

 and it was against possible acts of the latter kind, and not against fishing in- 

 shore, or seeking the rights of hospitality guaranteed under the treaty, that 

 Captain Vacheui ( McEacheru ) was warned by the collector. 



On November 24, 1886, a committee of the Canadian Privy Coun- 

 cil declared, and the Governor General approved the declaration : 



The Minister of Marine and Fisheries, to whom said despatch was referred 

 for early report, states that any foreign vessel, " not manned nor equipped, nor 

 in any way prepared for taking fish, " has full liberty of commercial intercourse 

 in Canadian ports upon the same conditions as are applicable to regularly 

 registered foreign merchant vessels; nor is any restrictions imposed upon any 

 foreign vessels dealing in fish of any kind different from those imposed upon 

 foreign merchant vessels dealing in other commercial commodities. 



That the regulations under which foreign vessels may trade at Canadian 

 ports are contained in the Customs Laws of Canada (a copy of which is here- 

 with), and which render it necessary, among other things, that upon arrival 

 at any Canadian port a vessel must at once enter inward at the custom house, 

 and upon the completion of her loading, clear outwards for her port of desti- 

 nation. 



AMERICAN FISHERMEN ARE NOT OUTCASTS. 



The foregoing contention, set up not merely by the Canadian Privy 

 Council, but by the governor general of the Dominion of Canada, 

 sweeps into the meshes of Canadian legislation to enforce the first 

 article of the treaty of 1818, every deep-sea fisherman in his rela- 

 tion to Canadian ports, no matter on what sea or ocean, Atlantic or 

 Pacific, he may have pursued, or may intend to pursue, his industry. 

 That contention places all American deep-sea fishermen entitled to 

 wear the flag of the Union at the mast-head of their boats or vessels, 

 be they little or big, under much the same ban in respect to the 

 hospitality of Canadian ports as they would be if pirates, or slave- 

 traders, or filibusters, or other enemies of the human race. " She 

 was a fishing vessel" says, on June 5, 1886, the Canadian Minister 

 of Marine and Fisheries, " and therefore debarred by the treaty of 

 1818 from entering Canada for the purposes of trade." ; ' The two 

 vessels which have been seized are. both of them, beyond all question 

 fishing vessels, and not traders," says the governor general of the 

 Dominion of Canada to Lord Granville on June 7, 1886, " and there- 

 fore liable, subject to the finding of the courts, to any penalties im- 

 posed by law for the enforcement of the convention of 1818.'" " We 

 cannot concur in Mr. Bayard's contention," said the Canadian Privy 

 Council on June 14, 1886, that " to prevent the purchase of bait or 

 any other supply needed for deep sea fishing, would be to expand 

 the convention to objects wholly beyond the purview, scope, and 

 intent of the treaty, and give to it an effect never contemplated." 

 "American deep-sea fishermen cannot," said the Canadian Minister 

 of Marine and Fisheries, on October 14, 1886, " obtain supplies for 

 the prosecution of his fishing, and to tranship his cargoes of fish at 

 a Canadian port," because both " are contrary to the letter and spirit 

 of the convention of 1818." " The convention of 1818," said a com- 

 mittee of the Canadian Privy Council, on October 30, 1886, " does not 



