Convention of 1818, (■j-j)li(Uh/ renounced all liberty ]> feci on uly 

 cnjoyeil tojislt "on or irifhi/i three itiarine in.iles of any of the 

 coast li, oays, creeks or harhoris of his Britannic M((jcstys do- 

 minions" they gave up any claims they may previously have 

 had, and confined themselves to the waters a league distant 

 from those indents measured from headland to headland. 

 The British Government, however, as alleged by Canadians, 

 in its desire to afford every facility to tiie United States con- 

 sistent with their sovereign rights and the interests of the 

 people of British North America, have since 1845 thought it 

 expedient to relax, in the case of the Bay of Fundy, the ap- 

 plication of the rule to which they have generally adhered. 

 They have permitted American fishermen to pursue their 

 calling in any part of the hay, j>rov id cd they should not rrp- 

 proach, except in cases spccijied by the treaty of 1818, tvitldn 

 three tniles of the entrance of any hay on the coast of Nova 

 Scotia or New Bransiuick. While maintauiing, as a matter of 

 strict construction, that this large bay is riglitfull}' claimed 

 by Great Britain as a body of water within the moaning of 

 the Convention of 1818, they have considered that in one 

 respect this inlet could be treated exceptionally, inasmuch 

 as there was some plausibility in the reasoning of the United 

 States, that the headlands were not only sixty miles apart, 

 l)ut one of them was not British ; and that, as pointed out 

 by Mr. Everc^tt to Lord Aberdeen in 1844 : " Oioimj to the 

 peculiar coiifyuration of the coasts of this arm of the sea, theix 

 is a succession of hays indenting the shores both of Nova Scotia 

 and New Brunswick, within any distance not less than three 

 miles, from which American fishermen were necessarily ex- 

 cluded by holdiny the vjliole body of water to be in the British 

 territorial limits.'" The same argument could not be used 

 in the case of the Bay of Chaleurs or other important indents 

 of the coasts. 



The imperial authorities have on many occasions strictly 

 maintained the rights they ])()ssess under tlie law of nations. 

 From 1818 to 1854 the British cruisers detailed by the Im- 

 perial and Colonial Government for the protection of their 

 fisheries captured and confiscated several American vessels 

 that were found ranging at points vai-ying from quite near 

 the shore to a distance of upwards of ten miles from land, 

 on the ground that they were within the headlands of bays. 

 In 1854, after considerable negotiation for years, the two 

 (bncrnments arranged a Iieclprocity Treaty, which teinpo- 

 rarily setthsd the increasing difficulties on the quc^stion. By 

 this treaty the United States obtained free access to the 

 fishing grounds on the east coast of British North America, 

 and certain natnral jirodncts of these iwo countries, lila^ 

 fish, coal. Hour, meal, lund)er and salt, were allowed to enter 

 into each iw.v of duty. This arrangement was of undoubted 



