233 



" I have, therefore, to request that you will present this subject aq-ain 

 to the consideration of her Majesty's government bv addressing a note 

 to the British iSecretar}^ of State f<)r Foreign Afliiirs, remintling him 

 that the letter of Mr. Stevenson to Lord Palmerston remains unan- 

 swered, and informing him ot" the anxious desire of the President that 

 proper means should be taken to prevent the possibility of a recurrence 

 of any like cause of complaint." 



Mr. Everett, on the 10th of August of the same year, thus ably and 

 clearly stated his views :* 



" The undersigned. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 

 tinr}' of the United States of America, has the honor to trnnsmit to the 

 Earl of Aberdeen, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affiiirs, the accompanying papers relating to the seizure on the 10th of 

 May hist, on the coast of Nova Scotia, by an officer of the provincial 

 customs, of the American fishing schooner Washington, of Newbury- 

 port, in the State of Massachusetts, for an alleged infraction of the 

 stipulations of the convention of the 20th of October, ISIS, between 

 tlie United States and Great Britain. 



"It appears from the deposition of William Bragg, a seaman on 

 board the Washington, that at the time of her seizure she was not within 

 t(;n miles of the coast of Nova Scotia. By the first article of the con- 

 v(>ntion above alluded to, the United States renounce any liberty here- 

 totbre enjoyed or claimed by their inhabitants to take, dry, or cure fish 

 on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts of her Majesty's 

 dominions in America, for which express provision is not made in the 

 said article. This renunciation is the only limitation existing on the 

 right of fishing upon the coasts of her Majesty's dominions in America, 

 secured to the people of the United States by the third article of the 

 U-eaty ot 17S3. 



•' The right, therefore, of fishing on any part of the coast of Nova 

 Scotia, at a greater distance than three miles, is so plain, that it would 

 be dilficuh to conceive on what ground it could be drawn in question, 

 had not attempts been already made by the provincial authorities of her 

 Majesty's colonies to interfere with its exercise. These attempts have 

 formed the subject of repeated complaints on the part of the govern- 

 ment of the United States, as will appear from several notes addressed 

 bv the predecessor of the undersi2;ned to Lord Palmerston. 



"From the construction attempted to be placed, on former occasions, 

 upon the first article of the treaty of fSlS, by the colonial authorities, 

 the undersigned supposes that the 'Washington' was seized because 

 she was found fishing in the Bay of Fundy, and on the ground that the 

 lines within which Ameiif-an vessels are {!)rbi(lden to fish are to run 

 ihim hcadhmd to headland, and not to t()ll()W the shore. It is pl.iin, 

 however, that neither the words nor the sj)iril of the convention ndmit 

 of any such construction ; nor, it is believed, was it set up by the; [)ro- 

 vincial authorities ior several years after llie negotiation of that instru- 

 ment. A glance at the m^p will show Lord Aberdeen th.it there is, 

 perh.ips, no j)art of the gr(;at extent of lh(- seacoasts of her Maj(\'^ty's 

 possessions in America in which the right of an American vessel to 



'Executive Document 100, i)a^'c 120. 



