UNITED STATES AND CANADA 189 



to Mr. Chamberlain and his associates in the 

 negotiation of the Fishery Treaty by the Canadian 

 Club, in New York, to-morrow night. With it 

 came your most kind and courteous personal letter, 

 and I am truly sorry that my duties here compel me 

 to be absent on so enjoyable an occasion. 



The work in which your most distinguished 

 guests have been here engaged is surely one of high 

 honour and usefulness, well deserving grateful re- 

 cognition at the hands of all who have at their heart 

 the happiness and welfare of Canada and the United 

 States. I hope the Treaty now pending for ratifica- 

 tion may be thoroughly comprehended on both 

 sides of the border and be tried upon its honest 

 merits. As its arrangements come to be under- 

 stood, the more it will be approved by all fair- 

 minded and reasonable men as an honourable, 

 practical, and just settlement of a controversy that 

 for generations has baffled adjustment and threatened 

 the friendly status of two neighbouring States, who 

 have no just cause to be other than steady friends. 

 The Treaty has been framed in a spirit of just and 

 mutual conciliation and advantage, and I earnestly 

 hope that the blindness of partisanship or the 

 influence of local selfishness or ignorance may not 

 be suffered to deprive the two countries of its great 

 benefits. Its defeat would be a great public calamity, 

 which I hope patriotism may avert. 



Will you make expression of my regret in not 

 being able to join you in paying respect to your 

 distinguished guests, and believe me most truly 

 yours, Thomas F. Bayard. 



