311 



who is a legal gentlemnn, nnd a person of great private worth, gave 

 the opinion, in the cases of the Independence and the Hart, that "the 

 evidence was insufficient to anthorize their seizure;" yet we have seen 

 that both were confiscated. Mr. Barnes, the naval officer of Boston,* 

 in reply to the collector of that port, wlio desir(ul information in n.'lation 

 to the seizures made in 1S39, states, that " while at Yarmouth I had 

 the pleasure of meeting very many highly respectable and intelligent 

 gentlemen of that town, who seemed deeply to regi-et that their own 

 government officers should have proceeded with so much rigor against 

 the American fishing craft, belic^vlng with the consul and the Americans 

 g(Mierally, that, in a majority of cases, the seizures had been made for 

 causes of the most trivial character." He adds: " It is perfectly cer- 

 tain that our fishermen must have the right to resort to the shores of the 

 British provinces for shelter in bad weather, for fuel, and for water, 

 unmolested by British armed cruisers, or this important branch of 

 American industry must be, to a very great extent, abandoned. It 

 affords l)ut poor consolation to the fisherman, whose vessel has been 

 wantonly captured, and who finds himself and his friends on shore 

 among foreigners already sufficiently prejudiced against him, without 

 provisions and without money, to be told that the court of vice-admiralty 

 will see that justice is done him, and that, if innocent, his vessel will 

 be restored to him. The expenses ol" his defence and the loss of the 

 fishing season are his ruin." 



The officer who for many years made the greatest number of cap- 

 tures died in 1851. It was the opinion of Lieutenant Paine, in 1839, 

 that he was "prompted as well by his interest as by the certainty of 

 impunity" in his course towards our countrymen. We may now pass 

 lightly over his proceedings, remarking onl}' that, the year previous to 

 his decease, he levied contributions upon some of the masters of fishing 

 vessels he met with, compelling them to give him five, ten, or twenty 

 barrels of mackerel, according to circumstances, on pain of capture 

 for refusal. t 



To avoid misapprehension, I deem it })ropcr to observe, in conclu- 

 sion, that I have not designed to censure the admiralty court. As long 

 ago as the war of 1812, that tribunal restored to the Academy of Arts 

 of Philadelphia a case of Italian paintings and prints captured by a 

 British vessel and sent into Halifax, on the ground that "the arts and 

 sciences were a(hnitted to l()rm an exception to the sevc^'e rights of 

 warfare." It has lost none of its character since. Its decisions rest 

 on the law and the testimonv. Still, since integrity and learning upon 

 the bench are insufficient ti) insure justice without honest witnesses 

 uj)on the stand, American vessels have sometimes b(>cn condemned 

 wrongfully. 



The discussion mav end luic. The political leaders of Nova Scotia 

 have succeeded in disturbing the fHendly relations which for a long 

 period existed between England and the United States. "We have 



* In 1839. 



tTlir-ro Kcfms no roason fo (l(m'>t ttiiw utat^'inpiif, wliicli rests on tlio declarations of the 

 persons concfrncd. It is said, fiirtlicr, that, this olllcor dared not to dispose of tlie tisli atl^^r 

 he tiad ol)tained thi^n, an<l that liiey were Kuilered to remain in store u loni; time. Kepro- 

 aeutations on the suhject were luude to Mr. Wchster, Secretary of Htate, iu March, lSo2. 



