188 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



tion, should circumstances require it, to cases which may arise under 

 any change which may be made in the British laws affecting fisheries 

 within British jurisdiction, with a view to preventing, so far as it 

 may be in his power, infractions by citizens of the United States of 

 the first article of the treaty between the United States and Great 

 Britain of 1818, the laws in force relating to fisheries within British 

 jurisdiction, or any illegal interference with the pursuits of the fish- 

 ermen of the United States. 



U. S. GRANT. 

 WASHINGTON, March 31, 1870. 



[Inclosure No. 1.] 



DEPARTMENT or STATE, 



Washington, March 31, 1870. 



The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the 

 House of Representatives of the 7th instant, in the words following 



" Whereas it has been officially announced that it is not the inten- 

 tion of the Canadian authorities to issue licenses to foreign fishermen 

 for the privilege of the inshore fisheries of the Canadian coasts dur- 

 ing the ensuing year, and that arrangements would be made to pro- 

 tect the rights of Canadian fishermen by the employment of a num- 

 ber of vessels as a marine police, which are to cruise about the fishing 

 grounds : 



"Resolved, That the President be requested to communicate to 

 this House, if not incompatible with the public interests, any infor- 

 mation in his possession as to the determination of the Canadian au- 

 thorities in the matter of the fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 and coasts of Canada; and whether any steps have been taken for 

 the protection of the interests of American citizens engaged in the 

 fishing trade on said coasts, and securing to them the privileges which 

 they have heretofore enjoyed in the inshore fisheries thereof " 

 has the honour to state that, on the date of the receipt of the attested 

 copy of said resolution at this department, no information of any 

 such decision as that described in the preamble of said resolution 

 had been officially communicated to this department; and that, up 

 to the present time, none has been officially communicated through 

 the British minister accredited to this government, nor through the 

 minister of the United States at London. That on the 12th instant, 

 in the absence of such information, application was made to William 

 A. Dart, esq., the consul general of the United States at Montreal, 

 for a statement of the facts; in reply to which, on the 17th instant, 

 he addressed to the department the dispatch No. 57, an extract from 

 which is herewith submitted, forwarding with it the accompanying 

 newspaper report of a debate in the Parliament of the Dominion of 

 Canada, referred to therein. That on the 22d instant the same con- 

 sul general, with a dispatch numbered 59, inclosed a copy of a bill 

 introduced into the same Parliament, which had passed to a second 

 reading on the 22d of February last, an extract from which dispatch, 

 with a copy of the bill referred to, accompanies this report. That 

 these communications contain all the information in the premises 

 which has reached the department through official channels. In- 

 formal telegraphic reports or summaries to the same effect have, 

 however, appeared in the public prints. 



