ABGTJMENT OF JOHN S. EWABT. 1307 



788 I refer also to the British Case Appendix, p. 180, a let- 

 ter that was referred to as containing some evidence in the 

 other direction. It is a letter from Mr. Lawrence, United States 

 Minister at London, to Mr. Webster. Mr. Lawrence relates a con- 

 versation that he had with Lord Malmesbury, and in the third para- 

 graph of the letter he says : 



" Lord Malmesbury will probably propose to leave that part of 

 the treaty about which we disagree, for the present, just where it 

 has been, and will direct the British authorities to confine their ex- 

 ertions to within three marine miles of the shore, to exercise their 

 power with great leniency, and not to make captures except under 

 flagrant circumstances." 



That decidedly looks the other way. Lord Malmesbury wrote a 

 letter to Mr. Lawrence bearing the same date, and it may have been 

 that he misconstrued that letter, or that he depended upon his recol- 

 lection of some conversation. Whatever the explanation, I give the 

 Tribunal the letter. It is to be found in the United States Case 

 Appendix, at p. 522. In it Lord Malmesbury gives to Mr. Lawrence 

 categorically what the instructions are, but he may very well have 

 left a wrong impression on Mr. Lawrence's mind : 



" The orders that are to go out to our admiral, and of which I 

 have given Mr. Crampton notice, are 



" Not to interfere with the Magdalen islands. 



" To consider the Bay of Fundy on the same footing as we placed 

 it in 1845. 



" To capture American fishing vessels only under precisely (the) 

 same circumstances as those which would have been acted upon of 

 late years, and when manifestly infringing the treaty. 



" To exercise these instructions with the greatest forbearance and 

 moderation." 



The same instructions as previously ! That letter was of the same 

 date as Mr. Lawrence's letter to Mr. Webster. The latter letter was 

 brought to Lord Malmesbury's attention, and he at once contra- 

 dicted the statement that had been attributed to him. The letter of 

 Lord Malmesbury will be found in the British Case Appendix, at 

 p. 197: 



" In your despatch No. 140 you state that Mr. Webster had allowed 

 you to peruse the reports made to the United States Government by 

 Mr. Abbott Lawrence of a conversation which he had held with me 

 and Sir John Pakington upon the Fishery Question. 



" It appears therefrom that Mr. Lawrence was under the impres- 

 sion that I had informed him that no seizures would be made of 

 American vessels trespassing on British fisheries beyond three miles 

 from the shore, and that he had reason to hope that you would be 

 instructed to advise the Colonial authorities, and the Commanders 

 of Her Majesty's ships not to make any seizures whatever during 

 the present fishing season in order that American fishermen might 



