ARGUMENT OF CHARLES B. WARREN. 1169 



It also appears that in March 1845, Appendix to the Case of the 

 United States, at p. 489, Lord Aberdeen, in a note to Mr. Everett, 

 rested his case upon this opinion and stated that Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment " are fortified by high legal authority." 

 705 The fishing- vessels of the United States continued to prose- 

 cute the fisheries in the Bay of Fundy and other large bodies 

 of water, but in the spring of 1843 the authorities of Nova Scotia, 

 for the purpose of making a test case, having received, it will be borne 

 in mind, the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, seized the 

 American fishing-schooner "Washington," on the 7th day of May 

 of that year, while the " Washington " was fishing within the waters 

 of the Bay of Fundy, at a distance of more than 3 miles from shore. 



This, I may be permitted to repeat, was a seizure made for a test 

 case; and the ground of the seizure was so stated at the time. The 

 seizure was promptly reported to the State Department of the United 

 States, and Mr. Everett, the Minister for the United States in Great 

 Britain, was instructed to present the subject of the seizure to the 

 Government of Great Britain. 



The fact should not be overlooked that this seizure, for the pur- 

 pose of making a test case, was, in fact, made while the matter of the 

 construction of this clause of the treaty was still under discussion 

 between the Governments of the United States and of Great Britain, 

 and before the Government of Great Britain had replied to the notes 

 of the American Minister concerning the true interpretation of the 

 treaty. 



I shall not review these long notes, exchanged between the Minister 

 for the United States in London and the Foreign Office, concerning 

 the construction of this treaty. They are, as I have stated, set out 

 in the Appendix to the Case of the United States, and have been 

 sufficiently discussed in the Printed Argument of the United States. 



Later, on the 6th July, 1844, the authorities of Nova Scotia seized 

 the American fishing-schooner "Argus," off the coast of Cape Breton, 

 when about 16 miles from shore, claiming that the body of water 

 formed by a line from Cow Bay head or Cape Percy, near Sydney, 

 in Cape Breton, extending to Cape North, the northern extremity 

 of Cape Breton, was such a bay as had been renounced by American 

 fishermen under the terms of the treaty of 1818. 



The seizing officer stated, as reported by the captain of the vessel, 

 and as appears on p. 485 of the Appendix to the Case of the United 

 States : 



" he seized us " 



that is, the vessel 



" he seized us to settle the question." 



