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Cnpe Breton to Nova Scotiu, the undersigned would observe that he is 

 under the impression that the question of" the legality of that measure 

 is still pending before the judicird eommittee of her Majcst3''s privy 

 council. It would be very doubtful whether rights secured to American 

 vessels under })ul)lic compacts could, under an}" circumstances, be im- 

 paired by acts of subse<iucnt domestic legislation; but to proceed to 

 capture American vessels, in virtue of such acts, while their legality is 

 drawn in question by the home government, seems to be a measure as 

 unjust as it is harsh." 



And he remarked, further, that "it is stated by the captain of the 

 'Argus' that the commander of the Nova Scotia schooner, by which he 

 was captured, said that he was widiin three miles of the line beyond 

 which, 'on their construction of the treaty, we were a lawful prize, and 

 that he seized us to settle the question.' 



" The undersigned again feels it his duty, on behalf of his govern- 

 ment, formally to protest against an act of this description. x-Vmerican 

 vessels of trilling size, and pursuing a branch of industry of the most 

 harmless description, which, however beneficial to themselves, occasions 

 no detriment to others, instead of being turned off the debatable fishing 

 gi'ound — a remedy fully adequate to the alleged evil — are proceeded 

 again.- 1 as if engaged in the most undoubted infractions of municipal 

 law or the law of nations, captured and sent into port, their crews de- 

 prived of their clothing and personal efFects, and the vessels subjected 

 to a mode of procedure in the courts which amounts in many cases to 

 confiscation; and this is done to settle the construction of a treaty. 



"A course so violent and unnecessarily harsh would be regarded by 

 any goverrnnent as a just cause of complaint against an}' other with 

 whom it might differ in the construction of a national compact. But 

 when it is considered that these are the acts of a provincial government, 

 with whom that of the United States has and can have no intercourse, 

 and that they continue and are repeated while the United States aixd 

 Great Britain, the only j)arties to the treaty, the purport of whose pro- 

 visions is called in question, are amicably discussing the matter, with 

 every wish, on both sides, to bring it to a reasonable settlement, Lord 

 Aberdeen will perceive that it becomes a subject of complaint of the 

 most serious kind. 



"As such, the undersigned is instructed again to bring it to Lord 

 Aberdeen's notice, and to express the confident hope that such meas- 

 ures of redress as tlie urgency of the case requires will, at tli(3 instance 

 of his lordship, be promptly resort(;d to." 



The events of 1S45 were highly interesting and imj)ortant. The 

 colonists had, apparently, accomplished their long-cherished plans. 

 The opinion of the crown lawyers in 1S41; the declaration of Lord 

 Stanley in 1842, that our government "p/v/r//a///y arfjuiescnP^ in the 7U'u- 

 construction of the convention; and the capture of tlic Washington in 

 1S4-5, liir an infringement of that construction, and f()r no other otfiMicc 

 whatever, were all calculated to iinpress them witli the Ix'lief tliai the 

 contest was at an end. Such, I confi'ss, was the inclination of my 

 own mind. My home was on the frontier; I was a deah'r in the ])ro- 

 ducts ot" the sea, and was in the d;iily transaction of business with fish- 

 ermen of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and was well advisetl of 

 10 



