BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 293 



a distance of three miles out from that time. This is a great con- 

 cession made by the Americans. 



Hon. Mr. POWER. Will the hon. gentleman be good enough to let 

 us have the authority for the statement so made. 



Hon. Mr. POIRIER. I have not got the book or the page, but I have 

 been reading the question over, and have jotted the points down in 

 my notes as I read them. 



Hon. Mr. MILLER. The authority is clearly given, that England 

 would not concede to our claim more than three miles from the coast. 

 The instructions to Admiral Wolesley are the authority when he was 

 commanding the American Station. 



Hon. Mr. POIRIER. My hon. friend will admit my honesty in mak- 

 ing this statement, for I have taken a note of it from official docu- 

 ments, though I have not noted the page. 



Hon. Mr. MC!NNES (B. C.). Is it not a fact that the despatch 

 merely allowed American vessels to enter without having any author- 

 ity for doing so and for an indefinite time? There was no stated 

 time, and that Order-in- Council could be reversed at the will of the 

 British Government. 



Hon. Mr. POIRIER. The proof that it could be reversed is that it is 

 reversed by this treaty. The Americans will now have to abide by 

 the convention of La Hagjue, which enlarges the width of bays which 

 cannot be entered by foreign vessels to bays ten miles wide. We are 

 under the same footing as the northern nations of Europe in that 

 respect. 



******* 



(May 1.) 



Hon. Mr. VIDAL. * * * I could show that other concessions in 

 this Treaty are concessions of very little value to us and some of 

 which ought unquestionably to be made, and while I do not accept 

 the statement made by some hon. gentlemen that the Treaty of 1818 

 was a barbarous and outrageous treaty, I admit that it was not one 

 that would be made in 1888. There has been such a growth of ideas, 

 acknowledgment of rights of other nations, and increase of com- 

 mercial intercourse, that I am quite well aware that the Treaty of 1818 

 is not suitable to the circumstances of 1888. Long before t'his Treaty 

 was framed, I stated openly to people with whom I have conversed 

 about it, that Canada's insisting upon some of the rights which were 

 legally and literally hers under the Treaty of 1818, was demanding 

 that which should be given up without any hesitation, because they 

 were contrary to neighborly feeling, and were susceptible of being 

 harshly used towards fishermen in trouble and distress. 



Extracts from the Debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion 

 of Canada. Sessions 1888. 



SPEECH OF HON. J. S. D. THOMPSON ON THE BAYARD-CHAMBERLAIN TREATY. 



April 10, 1888. 



In a treaty which the hon. gentleman has been denouncing as a dis- 

 graceful surrender there is no miserable carping and quibbling over 



