506 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



can Minister to the court of St. James, very properly declined 

 to receive this privilege as a favor, but reiterating the Ameri- 

 can claim, he explained that it was u not for the sake of detract- 

 ing from the liberality evinced by Her Majesty's Government 

 in relaxing from what they regarded as their right, but it 

 would be placing his own government in a false position to 

 accept as a mere favor that for which they had so long and 

 so strenuously contended as due them from the convention." 



The colonists of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were 

 greatly disturbed by Lord Aberdeen's proposed "concession." 

 Fearing it indicated a weakening in the face of American 

 contentions, and that it might perhaps presage a more gen- 

 eral yielding of all the large bays of the Dominion to the 

 operations of foreign fishermen, they hurriedly despatched 

 an envoy to London, who appeared before the colonial office 

 with representations "of the injurious consequences cer- 

 tainly to result to Her Majesty's American subjects, were the 

 negotiations with Mr. Everett to be concluded on the basis 

 proposed." The policy of the colonial secretary was accord- 

 ingly abandoned, and the Bay of Fundy was again declared 

 to be a closed sea. The vexatious shipping regulations of the 

 Dominion were even mpre strictly enforced than before ; 

 seizure of American vessels was continued ; and the ani- 

 mosity which had been smouldering in New England against 

 its northern neighbors nearly blazed into war. 



The Canadians, on their side, were thoroughly indignant at 

 what they considered the persistent lawlessness on the part 

 of American fishermen, and they displayed their resentment 

 in still another form. The Strait of Canso, between Nova 

 Scotia and Cape Breton, affords a shorter and safer route to 

 vessels making the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the south. 

 This narrow passage is in certain places not more than a 

 mile in width. When the navigation of two seas is free, the 

 navigation of a channel connecting them should also be free, 

 although it may for certain reasons be made subject to a 

 toll regulation. The Canadians insisted that the Strait of 

 Canso fell within the description of territorial waters, and 

 they consequently denied the right of passage through it to 



