2098 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



lesley, commanding Her Majesty's naval forces on this Station, in 

 which he states the names of the vessels to be employed in main- 

 taining order at the Canadian Fisheries and forwarding a copy of the 

 instructions which were to be issued to the commanders of those 

 vessels." 



"Maintaining order at the Canadian fisheries" was something 

 which had nothing whatever to do with the treaty coast, or the exer- 

 cise of the fishing right, or drying and curing under the treaty of 

 1818. It related solely to maintaining the line of demarkation be- 

 tween the waters which were renounced and the waters which were 

 not renounced upon the non-treaty coast. The Tribunal will see that 

 very readily, by reference to the instructions which are enclosed in 

 this letter of Mr. Thornton's. There were a series of enclosures. 

 The first enclosure in that letter on p. 597 is the enclosure marked 

 No. 1, a letter from Mr. Vernon Lushington, from the British Ad- 

 miralty, saying : 



" I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty 

 to transmit, for the information of the Earl of Clarendon, a copy of 

 a letter from Vice Admiral Wellesley, dated .April 27th, No. 151, 

 stating that the Plover, Royalist and Britomart "- 



The names of British vessels. 



" are about to be despatched to the Bay of Fundy, and the Coasts of 

 Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island for the protection of the 

 Canadian Fisheries. 



" Enclosed is a copy of the special instructions furnished to these 

 ships." 



Enclosure No. 2 is a letter from Vice-Admiral-Wellesley to the 

 Admiralty telling when these vessels are to leave for the coast of 

 Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and enclosing a copy of the 

 instructions which will be given to the ships by the Admiral. 



Enclosure No. 3 consists of the instructions of the Vice-Admiral 

 to the commanding officers of these ships that were on the way to 

 Nova Scotia. And over on p. 600 the Tribunal will see that, as an 

 annex to this third enclosure of Mr. Thornton's letter to Mr. Fish, 

 is to be found this four-year-old Cardwell letter. The subject then 

 under discussion was the old question of bays. That was the only 

 subject under discussion. The subject to which Mr. Thornton's let- 

 ter referred was that. The enclosures in his letter to Mr. Fish re- 

 lated to that. The question up was: What were British naval ves- 

 sels going to do? What might they rightfully do in arresting, pre- 

 venting, seizing American vessels in the great bays of Nova Scotia 

 and Prince Edward Island the non-treaty coast? Mr. Thornton 

 did not send this Cardwell letter to Mr. Fish as a subject to which 

 he called his attention. It was an annex to one of the enclosures in 

 the letter relating to the bay subject, and in this annex to one of the 

 series of papers relating to the bay question there was this letter; 



