DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 733 



seized for fishing more than 3 miles from the shore in a bay indenting 



the British North American coast. 



439 But in the diplomatic correspondence of that period the pre- 



tension was asserted by the British Government that bays more 

 than 6 miles wide, and of indefinite width, if bays indenting British 

 shores, were within the exclusion of the treaty of 1818, and under 

 this pretension the American fishing vessel The ^Washington was 

 seized for fishing in the Bay of Fundy, but more than 3 miles from 

 the shore. This pretension of the British Government was denied 

 by our own, but no agreement upon the subject was come to. 



This state of things, with more or less of collision and harassment 

 to our fishing vessels, continued, but without very serious difficulty, 

 until, in 1852, an attempt was made by the British Government to 

 induce the United States to conclude a reciprocity treaty which 

 failing, the British Government sent a strong force of war steamers 

 juid sailing vessels to these waters for the alleged purpose of enforc- 

 ing the provisions of the treaty of 1818, but, as was believed by the 

 people and Government of the United States, intended not only for 

 that, but as an overawing enterprise, which should frighten the 

 American fishermen from resorting to British waters for any of the 

 purposes mentioned in the treaty, and to so much disturb American 

 fishing interests as to seriously cripple or destroy them, and thus 

 lead the United States to enter into reciprocity with British North 

 American provinces. 



Documentary papers and discussions in the Senate at the time 

 will show how fully this matter was understood, and how it was 

 regarded by the people and Government of the United States. Mr. 

 Webster, then Secretary of State, thereupon issued a circular notice 

 to American fishermen in which he states what the rigid and strict 

 construction of the treaty of 1818 would be, as claimed by the British, 

 as it respected the entrance of fishing vessels into the bays or har- 

 bours indenting the British provinces. He stated the British pre- 

 tension in respect of drawing lines from headland to headland and 

 their asserted pretension of a right to capture all American fishermen 

 who should follow their pursuits in bays inside of such lines. But 

 he distinctly also stated, in the same circular, that he did not agree 

 to the construction thus put by the British upon the treaty, or that 

 it was conformable to the intention of the contracting parties; but 

 he informed the public of the British pretension, "to the end that 

 those concerned in American fisheries may perceive how the case at 

 present stands and be on their guard." (H. R. Mis. Doc. No. 32, 

 Forty-second Congress, second session.) 



This circular of Mr. Webster was of July, 1852, and on the 23d 

 August of the same year, twenty-two years after the laws of 1830, 

 the provincial secretary of Nova Scotia issued a notice that "no 

 American fishing vessels are entitled to commercial privileges in 

 provincial ports," etc. (Memorandum respecting North American 

 fisheries, prepared for the information of the American commis- 

 sioners who negotiated the treaty of 1871.) 



Following these operations, the Claims Convention of the 8th of 

 February, 1853, between the United States and Great Britain, was 

 concluded, and under that convention the case of the Washington 

 seized for fishing in the Bay of Fundy, as before mentioned, was 



