DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 673 



of State, containing some observations thereon. Mr. Secretary Stan- 

 hope requests your Excellency to obtain, at the earliest possible mo- 

 ment, from your Excellency's advisers their views on Mr. Bayard's 

 proposals and to report them to Her Majesty's Government. 



The Minister of Marine and Fisheries, to whom the despatch and 

 enclosures have been referred, reports that Mr. Bayard suggests that 

 as the season for taking mackerel has now closed, " a period of com- 

 parative serenity may be expected, of which advantage should be 

 taken in order to adopt measures which will tend to make more har- 

 monious the relations between Canada and the United States as 

 regards the fisheries on the coasts of Canada." 



The Minister observes that while any indication of a disposition on 

 the part of the United States' Government to make arrangements 

 Avhich might tend to put the affairs of the two countries on a basis 

 more free from controversy and misunderstanding than at present 

 exists, must be hailed with satisfaction by the Government of Canada, 

 it is to be regretted that the language in which Mr. Bayard refers to 

 what has taken place during the past year indicates a disposition on 

 his part to attribute to unfriendly motives the proceedings of the 

 Canadian Government and a tendency to misapprehend the character 

 and scope of the measures which have been taken by it in order to 

 enforce the terms of the Treaty of 1818, and to ensure respect for the 

 municipal laws of the Dominion. 



The Minister submits therefore that he cannot avoid protesting 

 against such expressions in Mr. Bayard's letter as those in which he 

 alludes to the proceedings of the last few months as "the adminis- 

 tration of a strained and vexatious construction of the Convention of 

 1818," as "unjust and unfriendly treatment by the local authorities," 

 as " unwarranted interferences (frequently accompanied by rudeness 

 and unnecessary demonstration of force)" with the rights of the 

 United States' fishermen guaranteed by express treaty stipulations 

 and secured to them by the commercial laws and regulations of the 

 two countries, and which are demanded by the laws of hospitality to 

 which all friendly civilised nations owe allegiance," and as " conduct 

 on the part of the Canadian officials which may endanger the peace 

 of two kindred friendly nations." 



The Minister has to observe again what has frequently been stated 

 in the negotiations on this subject that nothing has been done on the 

 part of the Canadian authorities since the termination of the Treaty 

 of Washington in any such spirit as that which Mr. Bayard con- 

 demns, and that all that has been done with a view to the protection 

 of the Canadian Fisheries has been simply for the purpose of guard- 

 ing the rights guaranteed to the people of Canada by the Convention 

 of 1818, and to enforce the Statutes of Great Britain and of Canada 

 in relation to the fisheries. 



It has been more than once pointed out, in reports already submit- 

 ted by the Minister of Marine and Fisheries that such Statutes are 

 clearly within the powers of the respective Parliaments by which 

 they were passed, and are in conformity with the Treaty of 1818, 

 especially in view of that passage of the Treaty which provides that 

 the American fishermen shall be under such restrictions as shall be 

 necessary to prevent them from abusing the privileges thereby re- 

 served to them. 



92000 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 4 53 



