DESPATCHES, REPOKTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 663 



" Marion Grimes," of Gloucester, Mass. ; Alexander Landry, mas- 

 ter. Was in port of Shelburne, N. S., October 11, 1886, under deten- 

 tion for alleged infraction of customs regulations, and while so there 

 Captain Quigley, of the Dominion cruiser " Terror," compelled Cap- 

 tain Landry to haul down his (the United States') flag; upon its 

 being run up a second time, Captain Quigley went on board the 

 " Grimes " and hauled the flag down with his own hands. (H. K. 

 Ex. Doc. No. 1-9, Forty-ninth Congress, second session, pp. 124-125. 

 153-163.) 



It will be seen from the correspondence and papers submitted by 

 the President, in his Message on the subject of the 8th December last 

 (Ex. Doc. No. 19, Forty-ninth Congress, second session), and from 

 the testimony taken by the committee, that some of these instances 

 of seizure or detention, or of driving vessels away by threats, &c., 

 were in clear violation of the treaty of 1818, and that others were on 

 such slender and technical grounds, either as applied to fishing rights 

 or commercial rights, as to make it impossible to believe that they were 

 made with the large and just object of protecting substantial 

 396 rights against real and substantial invasion, but must have been 

 made either under the stimulus of the cupidity of the seizing 

 officer, sharpened and made safe by the extraordinary legislation to 

 which the committee has referred, whereby the seizing officer, no 

 matter how unjust or illegal his procedure may have been, is made 

 practically secure from the necessity of making substantial redress 

 to the party wronged, or of punishment, or else they must have 

 arisen from a systematic disposition on the part of the Dominion 

 authorities to vex and harass American fishing and other vessels so 

 as to produce such a state of embarrassment and inconvenience with 

 respect to intercourse with the provinces as to coerce the United 

 States into arrangements of general reciprocity with the Dominion. 



In respect of general reciprocity, the experience of the United 

 States during the existence of the treaty of 1854 was such as to lead 

 Congress, with great unanimity, to terminate it; and the experience 

 of the United States, under such so-called reciprocity as was provided 

 for by the treaty of 1871, was such as to lead both Houses, with very 

 great unanimity, to terminate that. Each of these instances con- 

 tinued long enough to show fully the general working of the arrange- 

 ment. The great balance of gain and advantage appeared to be in 

 favour of the Canadians, while the great balance of loss and disadvan- 

 tage fell on the people of the United States. 



Indeed, the treaty of 1871, so far as it related to the fisheries, &c., 

 was based upon the idea that the right of American fishermen to fish 

 within 3 miles of the Dominion shores was of some considerable 

 value, which the United States thought would be fully compensated 

 by admitting Dominion fishermen to the waters of the United States 

 and admitting their fish free of duty. Notwithstanding this, by the 

 methods and results of setting the balance of pecuniary advantages 

 by the Halifax Commission, the United States paid on the award 

 of that commission (waiving the serious question of its irregularity) 

 $5,500,000. So strong was the opinion of the United States, even at 

 that time, that this award was wholly unjust in fact that it is under- 

 stood that steps were taken to invite the British Government to 

 terminate the fisheries clauses of the treaty of 1871 immediately and 



