237 



" The note of Lord Aberdeen of the 15t]i of April last is confined 

 exclusively to the case of the Washington ; and it accordingly be- 

 comes the duty of the undersigned again to invite his lordshij)'s at- 

 tention to the correspondence above referred to between Mr. kStcven- 

 son and Lord Palmcrston, and to request that imjuiry may be made, 

 williout unnecessary delay, into all the causes of complaint whicli have 

 been made by the American government against the improper inter- 

 ference of the British colonial authorities with the fishing vessels olthe 

 United States. 



" In reference to the case of the Washington, Lord Aberdeen, in 

 his note of the 15th of A])ril, justifies her seizure by an armed provin- 

 cial vessel, on the assumed tact that, as she was iound fisliing in the 

 Bay of Fundy, she was within the limits from which the fisliing vessels 

 of the United States are excluded by the provisions of the convention 

 between the two countries of October, 1818. 



" The und(Tsigned had remarked, in his noteof the 10th of August last, 

 on the impropriety of the conduct of the colonial authorities in proceed- 

 ing in reference to a question of construction of a treaty pending between 

 the two countries, to decide the question in their own favor, and in vir- 

 tue of that decision to order the capture of the vessels of a friendly 

 State. A summary exercise of power of this kind, the undersigned is 

 sure, would never be resorted to by her Majesty's government, except 

 in an extreme case, while a negotiation was in train on the point at 

 issue. Such a procedure, on the part of a local colonial authority, is, 

 of course, highly objectionable, and the undersigned cannot but again 

 invite the attention of Lord Aberdeen to this view of the subject. 



" Witli respect to the main question of the right of American vessels to 

 fish within the acknowledged limits of the Bay of Fundy, it is ncces- 

 sarv, for a clear understanding of the case, to go back to the treaty of 

 1783. 



" By this treaty it was provided that the citizens of the United States 

 should be allowed 'to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast 

 of iN'ewf()undland as liritisli fishermen shall use, (but not to dr}' or cure 

 the same on that island,) and also on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all 

 other of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, and that the 

 American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any 

 of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalene 

 islands, and Lain'ador, so hnig as the same shall remain unsettled; but 

 so Sfjon as the same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not be 

 lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such scltl(Mnent with- 

 out a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, propri- 

 etors, or possessors of that ground.' 



" These privileges and conditions were in reference to a country of 

 whirji ;i considerable portion was tlx^-n unsettled, likely to be atteiulcd 

 with dilli-rcMiees of o})inion as to what should, in the progi'css ot time, be 

 accounted a settlement from which Amcrirun fisliermen might be exclu- 

 ded. These differences in fact arose, and by the year 1818 the slate of 

 things was so far changed that her Majesty's government thought it neces- 

 saiy, in negotiating ili(> convention ot that year, entirely to except the 

 province of Nova Scoii;i ii-om tin; number of the places whicii niiulit be 

 frequented i)y Americans as being in p.irt unsettled, and to provide that 



