DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 695 



Her Majesty's Government have given their most careful consid- 

 eration to that communication, and it has also received the fullest 

 examination at the hands of the Canadian Government, who entirely 

 share the satisfaction felt by Her Majesty's Government at any indi- 

 cation on the part of that of the United States of a disposition to 

 make arrangements which might tend to put the affairs of the two 

 countries on a basis more free from controversy and misunderstand- 

 ing than unfortunately exists at present. The Canadian Govern- 

 ment, however, deprecate several passages in Mr. Bayard's despatch 

 which attribute unfriendly motives to their proceedings, and in which 

 the character and scope of the measures they have taken to enforce 

 the terms of the Convention of 1818 are, as they believe, entirely 

 misapprehended. 



They insist 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 condemns, and that all 

 that has been done with a view to the protection of the Canadian 

 fisheries, has been simplv for the purpose of guarding the rights guar- 

 anteed to the people of Canada by the Convention of 1818, and of 

 enforcing the Statutes of Great Britain and of Canada in relation to 

 the fisheries. They maintain that such Statutes are clearly within the 

 powers of the respective Parliaments by which they were passed, 

 and are in conformity with the Convention of 1818, especially 

 414 in view of the passage of the Convention which provides that 

 the American fishermen shall be under such restrictions as shall 

 be necessary to prevent them from abusing the privileges thereby 

 reserved to them. 



There is a passage in Mr. Bayard's despatch to which they have 

 particularly called the attention of Her Majesty's Government. It 

 is the following : 



The numerous soi/iires made have been of vessels quietly at anchor in estab- 

 lished ports of entry under charges which up to this day have not been par- 

 ticularised sufficiently to allow of intelligent defence; not one has been con- 

 demned after trial and hearing, but many have been fined, without hearing or 

 judgment, for technical violation of alleged commercial regulations, although 

 all commercial privileges have been simultaneously denied to them. 



In relation to this paragraph the Canadian Government observe 

 that the seizures of which Mr. Bayard complains have been made 

 upon grounds which have been distinctly and unequivocably stated 

 in every case ; that, although the nature of the charges has been inva- 

 riably specified and duly announced, those charges have not in any 

 case been answered ; that ample opportunity has in every case been 

 afforded for a defence to be submitted to the Executive authorities, 

 but that no defence has been offered beyond the mere denial of the 

 right of the Canadian Government; that the Courts of the various 

 provinces have been open to the parties said to been [have been] ag- 

 grieved, but that not one of them has resorted to those Courts for 

 redress. To this it is added that the illegal acts which are character- 

 ised by Mr. Bayard as " technical violations of alleged commercial 

 regulations," involved breaches in most of the cases not denied by the 

 persons who had committed them, of established commercial regula- 

 tions which, far from being specially directed or enforced against 

 citizens of the United States, are obligatory upon all vessels (includ- 



