DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 691 



ing the law upon coasts of which the configuration is particularly 

 favourable to the operations of smugglers. 



9. For these reasons I cannot hold out the expectation that my 

 Government will abandon the position which I have described, and 

 which may be summed up in the statement that it cannot recognise 

 the right of the United States' fishing vessels to resort to Canadian 

 waters except for the purposes specified in the Convention of 1818, 

 and that it considers that its officials should have the discretion of 

 determining in what cases and to what extent, subject to the ultimate 

 decision of the courts, vessels entering those waters for a lawful pur- 

 pose should comply with the requirements of the municipal law of 

 the Dominion. With this reservation, my Government desires to 

 afford to all foreign vessels every facility for availing themselves of 

 the privileges to which they are entitled, and to avoid, as far as possi- 

 ble, attaching to the exercise of those privileges any condition of an 

 irritating or vexatious character. 



10. If you should be of opinion that any alterations are desirable 

 in the procedure of the local authorities or in the instructions to 

 which I have already referred, I trust that you will favour me with 

 an expression of your views. 



I have, &c., (Sd.) LANSDOWNE. 



The Eight Hon. Sir HENRY HOLLAND, Bart., G.C.M.G., 



&c., <&c., (&c. 



No. 236. 1887, March 10: Letter from Governor-General of Canada 

 to Sir Henry Holland. 



Confidential. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 



Ottawa, 10th March, 1887. 



SIR, I had the honour of receiving your telegram of the 8th instant, 

 in which you suggested that my Government should accept, subject 

 to certain amendments, the proposal contained in Article III of Mr. 

 Bayard's Memorandum, under which Her Majesty's Government and 

 that of the United States would send two vessels each to cruise during 

 the fishing season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the coast of 

 Nova Scotia, for the purpose of investigating cases in which fishing 

 vessels of the United States might be seized for violation of the pro- 

 visions of the Convention of 1818. 



My despatch " confidential " of December 28th, 1886, and the 



Order in Council enclosed in my despatch " secret " of February 1st, 



contained a reference to some of the objections felt by my 



412 Government to the procedure described in this Article. The 



amendments which are suggested in your telegram would, to 



some extent, but not entirely, remove those objections. 



Under the Article as it would stand after the introduction of your 

 amendments, a vessel seized for contravention of the Convention of 

 1818 would, except w r here the commanding officers of the two 

 " national vessels " were unanimous in considering that the charge 

 was not sustained, be sent for trial before the Vice-Admiralty Court 

 at Halifax. While in this respect the Article as amended would be 

 less open to objection than in its original shape, I fear that there are 

 practical difficulties in the way of its adoption which are likely to 

 be insurmountable, in spite of the earnest desire of my advisers to 



