DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 687 



but they need not enter nor clear, nor pay entrance or clearance fees. 

 A registered vessel from district to district is, as to clearance and en- 

 trance, subject to the same rules as vessels under frontier license and 

 enrolment, and, on the other hand, a licensed and enrolled vessel 

 touching at a foreign port, does not thereby become subject to our 

 tonnage duty, nor to clearance and entrance fees as if from a foreign 

 port. It is for our own convenience that vessels are classified as 

 fishermen, inasmuch as our laws control by minute regulations the 

 business of fishing in respect to contracts with those so employed. 

 They punish fishermen who desert, and protect fishermen in the di- 

 visions of the proceeds of the catch, but none of the laws thus defining 

 and controlling fishing vessels make the vessels any the less American 

 vessels, which within the concerted legislation of 1830, and President 

 Jackson's proclamation of that year, are entitled to commercial privi- 

 leges in Canadian ports. 



WHAT SHALL THE RESPONSE BE ? 



And now comes the question : what shall be the character and limi- 

 tations of the response? Shall we only exclude Canadian fish, or 

 such fish and all Canadian vessels, or both of them, and all mer- 

 chandise coming from Canada by any sort of a vehicle, including the 

 vehicle ? 



Under what conditions can negotiation go on with the least injury 

 to ourselves our dignity and self-respect? I cannot believe that the 

 Government at London will persist in its present course unless in- 

 spired, for some occult reason, by a purpose to break friendly rela- 

 tions with ourselves, or otherwise under the will and at the mercy of 

 its colony. 



I have not had the time or strength, since your letter came, to go 

 through the British statutes in order to ascertain in what respect the 

 British " North American act " of 1867 has been modified, but under 

 that enactment the Canadian Dominion is, in one sense, and in regard 

 to specified subjects, self-governing. The Queen is, to be sure, em- 

 powered, by and with the advice and consent of the two Canadian 

 houses, to make laws for Canada, but the following matters are 

 defined as thus within the control of the provincial legislatures : 



1. The regulation of trade and commerce. 



10. Navigation and shipping. 



12. Sea-coast and inland fisheries. 



But yet none of those are defined as subjects within the exclusive 

 powers of the provincial legislatures, so as to disregard the Queen's 

 assent. 



ARTICLE XXIX or ALABAMA TREATY. 



Whether or not Article XXIX of the Alabama Treaty was left 

 standing by the Act of Congress of June 28, 1883, and the President's 

 proclamation thereunder, is an important preliminary question in 

 the solution of the Canadian problem. 



Articles XVIII and XIX, dealing with (compensated) reciprocal 

 sea-fishing liberties, and Article XXI dealing with reciprocal fish-oil 

 and fish free markets, and Article XXX, dealing with reciprocal con- 

 veyance of merchandise in bond, specified the terms of years they 

 should be in force. So did Article XXIX, dealing with the recip- 



