488 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



crises of 1812 depressed the fisheries. Jefferson's Embargo 

 measures brought great distress to the fishermen, and the 

 advent of war soon after drove them from the Banks, and 

 completely paralyzed their industry. 



Immediately following the withdrawal of the British 

 forces from the United States at the close of the Revolu- 

 tionary War, a strong dislike was manifested for the " Tories, " 

 or those who had remained loyal to England throughout the 

 struggle for independence. Numbers of these disaffected 

 people emigrated to Nova Scotia and to Canada ; not a few 

 of them established homes in Newfoundland. These disap- 

 pointed men, no doubt nurturing feelings of resentment, 

 regarded with jealous interest the operations of American 

 fishermen in Canadian waters. As loyal emigrants making 

 new settlements on the coasts of New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia, they were naturally loath to recognize the rights of 

 American fishermen under the treaty of 1783, namely, to 

 use British shores for drying and curing their fish ; and they 

 were in a mood to record eagerly any transgression of privi- 

 leges by their old enemies as they were always vigilant to 

 detect them in misdeeds of any kind. These unfriendly 

 settlers along the Canadian shores were largely instrumental, 

 it is known, in causing the British colonies in 1807 to make 

 protests to their home government against the conduct of the 

 Americans ; later, upon the outbreak of hostilities between 

 England and the United States, and the consequent abroga- 

 tion of all former treaties between those powers, they took 

 the opportunity to urge upon the British Government a 

 refusal to renew any fishing privileges whatever in their 

 waters. These appeals, backed by many representations of 

 the pernicious moral influences exerted by New England 

 fishermen over the inhabitants of Nova Scotia and Labrador, 

 through their evasions of custom duties, illicit trading, etc., 

 soon convinced the British ministry that England had been 

 far too generous for her own good in granting such extended 



