PERIOD FKOM 1S41 TO 1854. 107 



6th. By the Convention, the liberty of entering the Bays and Har- 

 bors of Nova Scotia for the purpose of purchasing wood and obtaining 

 water, is conceded in general terms, unrestricted by any condition 

 expressed or implied, limiting it to vessels duly provided at the com- 

 mencement of the voyage; and we are of o])inion that no such condi- 

 tion can be attached to the enjoyment of the liberty. 



7th. The rights of Fishery ceded to the citizens of the United 

 States and those reserved for tlie exclusive enjoyment of British 

 subjects, depend altogether upon the Convention of 1818, the only 

 existing Treaty on this subject between the two countries, and the 

 material points arising thereon have been specifically answered in 

 our replies to the preceding Queries. 



We nave, etc., 



(Signed) J. Dodson, 



Thos. Wilde.** 



This opinion was never officially communicated to the United 

 States Government, but some ten years later, having been published 

 at Halifax, it came to the attention of Mr. Everett, then Secretary 

 of State, who as American Minister at London during the controversy 

 on the questions under consideration, having succeeded Mr. Steven- 

 son in 1843, was entitled to speak with authority on the subject, and 

 he then took occasion to comment on it as follows: 



Now, neither the term ''headland", nor anything equivalent or 

 synonymous, occurs in the convention of 1818; and this legal author- 

 ity, wliich, no doubt, was mainly instrumental in leading the home 

 government to adopt the colonial construction of the treat}?", rests 

 in this respect, upon an imaginary basis. The law officers of the 

 Crown appear to have mistaken a sentence in the ex parte case made 

 up at Halifax, in which the word "headland" appears for a part of 

 the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, which they 

 were required to expound. The government of the United States 

 cannot but regret that an official opinion which had the effect of 

 reversing the construction of the convention on which Great Britain 

 had acted from 1818 to 1842, wliich excluded our fishermen from 

 some of the best fishing-ground, after the undisturbed enjoyment of 

 a quarter of a century, and finally brought the countries to the verge 

 of a deplorable collision, should have been given by the law officers 

 of the Crown without a more careful perusal of the text of the treat}-. ^ 



In connection with the restrictions imposed b}' the province of 



Nova Scotia upon the treaty right of American fishermen to enter 



the bays and harbors of that coast for shelter, repairs, wood, and 



water, to wliich Mr. Stevenson particularh^ called Lord Palmerston's 



o Appendix, p. 1047. 



It will be noted that the paragraphs of the opinion are numbered to correspond with 

 the numbers of the questions in the ' ' case ' ' to which they refer, and that the reprint of 

 this opinion found in the Journal of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia does not 

 contain a 3d paragraph, but whether or not the opinion as originally rendered con- 

 tained a 3d paragraph specifically answering the 3d question does not appear. 



b Appendix, p. 540. 



