42 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



ing in the waters of this province, have uniformly resorted to the pre- 

 texts afforded by the Convention, viz. : the want of shelter, repairs or 

 wood, and water, and never it is believed have asserted the right to 

 fish within the bays or harbours of the coasts." 



It is not known whether any reply was sent to Mr. Stevenson; 

 probably it was thought unnecessary for the reason given by Lord 

 Stanley, viz. (United States Case, App., p. 1046), that the precautions 

 taken by the Provincial Legislature were practically acquiesced in by 

 the Americans ; but however that may be, it is certain that no further 

 communication was at that time received from Mr. Stevenson or from 



the Government of the United States. 



49 Mr. Everett repeated Mr. Stevenson's assertion in his letter 



of the 10th August, 1843 (British Case, App., p. 130), but it 

 was again expressly denied by Lord Falkland in his despatch of the 

 17th October of that year (British Case, App., p. 131). 



His Majesty's Government submit that the true inference from this 

 evidence is that the American fishermen did not set up any claim to 

 fish as of right in British bays until the mackerel fishery became of 

 importance to them about the year 1836, and that the allegation that 

 the British Government did not dispute this claim therefore falls to 

 the ground. 



BRITISH ACTION IN 1838. 



On the 6th October, 1838, Lord Palmerston. British Foreign Secre- 

 tary, instructed Mr. Fox, His Majesty's Minister at Washington, to 

 inform the Government of the United States that His Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment had deemed it expedient to direct some small vessels of war 

 to be stationed on the coasts of Nova Scotia for the protection of the 

 fisheries. He continued (British Case, App., p. 117) : 



" The chief matter of complaint is, that American citizens in viola- 

 tion of the Convention of 1818, enter the gulfs, bays, harbours, creeks, 

 narrow seas, and waters of the Colonies, and that they land on the 

 shores of Prince Edward and the Magdalen Islands, and by force, 

 aided by superior numbers, drive British fishermen from banks and 

 fishing grounds solely and exclusively British. . . . 



" You will observe that the points which Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment have to enforce are : 



" 1st. That the three marine miles within which the citizens of the 

 United States are by the Convention prohibited from fishing, must be 

 calculated from the headlands of Nova Scotia, and not as the Ameri- 

 cans contend, from a line curving and corresponding with the coast ; " 



It is clear, therefore, that Great Britain took up her position in 

 1838, on the first occasion when any practical question was raised in 

 regard to bays. From that position she has never departed, and to 

 that position she adheres to-day. 



