296 



colonists by snylng, that " The commanders of these vessels will be 

 cantioned to take care that, while supporting the rights of British sub- 

 jects, they do not themselves overstep the bounds of the treaty." 



Lord Aberdeen, April, 1S44, in a letter to Mr. Everett, adopts the 

 opinion of the crown lawyers. This, I suppose, was the first unquali- 

 fied official avowal to a functionary of our government of the head- 

 land construction of the convention. His lordship, in March, 1845, 

 in another communication addressed to Mr. Everett, reaffirms this 

 construction, and distinctly states that with reference to the Bay of 

 Fundy and the other ba3's on the British American coasts, "no United 

 States fisherman has, under that convention, the right to fish within 

 three miles of the entrance of such bays as designated by a line drawn 

 from headland to headland at that entrance." 



Our right, therefore, to the bays in dispute rests upon the British 

 interpretation of the treaty, as well as our own. 



Nor are we unsupported by colonists. Some, w'ith great fairness^ 

 admit all that we claim. Two examples will suffice. A respectable 

 colonial newspaper, in commenting, in 1845, ^apon Lord Stanley's des- 

 patch of March 30, of that year, which, it will be remembered, opens 

 the Bay of Fundy, objects to the measure on the ground that o>ar privi- 

 leges were already ample : for, it remarks, " in the conveation of 1818, 

 it is stipulated that the citizens of the United States shall be allowed to 

 fish wnthin three nautical miles aromul all our coasts ;" that instrument, 

 it argues, " should have reserved to us [to British subjects] the qraiet and 

 undisturbed possession of our hays and inlets.'''' The article from which 

 this extract is made is able, and was copied isito several other colonial 

 nsv/spapers.* 



* Some of the colonial newspapers stjll maintain simDar views. The St. John New Brans- 

 wicker said, in August, 1852, in commenting on Mr. Webster's despatcli or " proclamation,"^ 

 that '• it will be seen that Mr. Webster labors usder the impression, that her Majesty's goveru- 

 ment are about to enforce the convention sti-ictly, according to the oj^inions of the law officers 

 of England. We beliere that such is not the case. For somt years vast there has Iteaa a tacPS 

 nndtistawlhig that American fishing vessels should only be excluded from tlx)se hays^ or inlets 

 of Ota- cocsts ichich tare less than six miles wide, aad within which American vessels conld nofe 

 fish unless within three miles of the land, either on the one side or the other. TSere is noS 

 the slightest necessity for sti'aining the tenns of the convention, for it is DOtoriovis that 

 American fishing vessels pursue everywhere nea? the shores of these proviaces, withia tiree 

 miles of the land, where only in the autumn they get the best fishiug ; and a; is to prevcE* this 

 flagrant and acknowledged breach of the convention that the present movemeats are taking 

 place." 



The St. John News, in the same month, disavawed tlie new eoastractloa of the eoaveatioQ 

 ill these words : 



" Now all this tempest in a tea-pot amounts to jast nothing at aH, and we think the AmericaD 

 press will find out before a very great while that they have beea wasting their powder^ and 

 getting nothing ia retuni but pity for their ignorassce. They will leam thaS the legislatures of 

 these provinces have not attempted to give anewreadifig to the treat}' — neither has Englaad; 

 that they do not refuse to American fi.siermen the privilege of taiiag fish in the Bay of Fimdy; 

 whether right or wrong, is another thing. 



"All that we intend to do is nothing more nor less Shan we have be«B doisg for t&e las4 

 thirty years — and that is, to .seize vessels caught within three miles of the shore, taking fisb 

 foiirrary to the ti'eaty, as thoroughly umhrstood both by England and America, and also hj the 

 fishermen themselves. Whenever it can be showa that an American vessel has been 'jaken 

 outside of the prescribed limits, then It will be tisiBe enough for cm* neighbors to gei in a 

 pucker." 



A newspaper published at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, (also is August, 1852,) m 

 an arricle in answer to the question " Is war probable ?" advocates the policy of permittiag the 

 Americans to have access to the colonial shores, and remarks : " But a very pretty quarrel 

 with America is by no means improbable,. «/ our crui'sers insist on cavturing all Yankee fshk^ 



