DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 677 







if they should disagree and be unable to choose an umpire must 

 refer the final decision of the great interests which might be at stake, 

 to some person chosen by lot. 



If a vessel charged with infraction of our fishing rights should, by 

 this extraordinary tribunal, be thought worthy of being subjected to 

 a " Judicial Examination " she would be sent to the Vice- Admiralty 

 Court at Halifax, but there would be no redress, no appeal and no 

 reference to any tribunal if the naval officers should think proper to 

 release her. 



4. Article IV is also open to grave objection. It proposes to give 

 the United States' fishing vessels the same commercial privileges as 

 those to which other vessels of the United States are entitled, al- 

 though such privileges are expressly renounced by the Treaty of 

 1818, on behalf of fishing vessels, which were thereafter to be denied 

 the right of access to Canadian waters except for shelter, repairs and 

 the purchase of wood and water. It has already been pointed out, 

 in previous reports on this subject, that an attempt was made, dur- 

 ing the negotiations which preceded the Convention of 1818, to 

 obtain for the fishermen of the United States the right of obtaining 

 bait in Canadian waters, and that this attempt was successfully re- 

 sisted. Your Excellency will observe that, in spite of this fact, it is 

 proposed, under the article now referred to, to declare that the Con- 

 vention of 1818 gave that privilege, as well as the privileges of pur- 

 chasing other supplies, in the harbours of the Dominion. 



5. To this novel and unjustified interpretation of the Convention 

 Mr. Ba} r ard proposes to give retrospective effect by the next article 

 of the proposal, in which it is assumed, without discussion, that all 

 United States' fishing vessels which have been seized since the expira- 

 tion of the Treaty of Washington have been illegally seized, leaving 

 as the only question still open for consideration, the amount of the 

 damages for which the Canadian authorities are liable. 



The Minister submits that the serious consideration of such a pro- 

 posal would imply a disregard of justice as well as of the interests 

 of Canada, and he is unwilling to believe that it will be entertained, 

 either by your Excellency's advisers, or by the Imperial Government. 



From the above enumeration of some of the principal objections to 

 which the proposals contained in Mr. Bayard's memorandum, are 

 open, it will be evident to your Excellency that those proposals as a 

 whole will not be acceptable to the Government of Canada. The con- 

 ditions which Mr. Bayard has sought to attach to the appointment 

 of a mixed Commission involve in every case the assumption that 

 upon the most important points in the controversy which has arisen 

 in regard to the fisheries on the eastern coast of British North 

 America, Canada has been in the wrong and the United States in the 

 right. The reports which have already been submitted to your Excel- 

 lency and communicated to Her Majesty's Government upon this 

 subject have been sufficient to show that the position which has been 

 taken up by the Canadian Government is one perfectly justifiable, 

 with reference to the rights expressly reserved to British subjects by 

 treaty, and that the legislation : by which it has been, and is now 

 being sought to enforce those rights, is entirely in accordance with 

 treaty stipulations, and is within the competence of the Colonial 

 Legislature. 



