BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 271 



limitation of our exclusive rights, however temporary and guarded 

 it may be intended to be made. 



This disputed matter has now been pending for upwards of twenty- 

 five years, during which period the American Government has had 

 frequent opportunities, and has been specially invited to join in an 

 equitable adjustment of the same. The fault that it is still unsettled 

 and the source of difficulty attaches to the United States Government 

 alone. Great Britain and Canada are merely defendants, as in pos- 

 session of a national right, existing in fact and in law. 



The Council is aware when the British Government in 1845 opened 

 the Bay of Fundy to American fishermen, as an amicable relaxation 

 of treaty rights, the act was officially regarded as " a practical aban- 

 donment " by American authorities of the British construction of the 

 Convention of 1818. It was immediately followed by a demand for 

 general application to all indents exceeding "six miles" in width. 

 This extraordinary demand appears to have been for the moment 

 acquiesced in by Lord Aberdeen, for peace sake, but was soon after- 

 wards rejected by Lord Stanley on the earnest remonstrances of the 

 Colonies. Another concession in the same direction, as proposed by 

 Lord Granville (identical in the words of that ineffectual and unjust 

 claim) , may be similarly construed to our detriment. Thus the whole 

 policy of exclusion would be gradually subverted, and component 

 parts of a question vital to the future welfare and interests of Canada 

 become practically abandoned piece-meal. 



The peculiar concession now suggested, would, it is believed, tend 

 to create new differences with the United States instead of promoting 

 any final settlement of the existing controversy. 



Reference is particularly requested to Reports of the 15th and 

 20th of December last, in which the whole matter in question is fully 

 set forth. The conclusions arrived at were, that, as the American 

 Government had voluntarily terminated the Treaty of 1854, and 

 ever since failed to consider any propositions regarding an equiva- 

 lent for the use of pur own fisheries, notwithstanding an intermediate 

 license system which continued to United States citizens the same 

 fishery privileges they had enjoyed under the Reciprocity Treaty, 

 on merely formal conditions, all such concessions should be absolutely 

 withdrawn and our rights duly enforced as they existed and were 

 upheld anterior to that reciprocal compact. 



The undersigned, therefore, respectfully submits that the terms of 

 the policy already adopted and now in actual course of being car- 

 ried out should be strictly adhered to. 



The whole respectfully submitted. 



(Signed) P. MITCHELL, 



Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 



Sir John Young to Lord Granville. 



No. 165.] NIAGARA, July 9th, 1870. 



MY LORD: As I had the honour to state on the 23rd June (No. 140) 

 I forwarded your Despatch No. 138, of the 6th June immediately 

 upon receipt, to the Council of Ministers for their consideration and 

 guidance. 



