114 CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



latter to anticipate the decision of the question ; and the undersigned 

 must again represent it to the Earl of Aberdeen as a matter of just 

 complamt and surprise on the part of his government, that the oppo- 

 site course has been pursued by her Majesty's colonial authorities, 

 who have proceeded (the undersigned is confident without instruc- 

 tions from London,) to capture and detain an American vessel on a 

 construction of the treaty which is a matter of discussion between 

 the two governments, and while the undersigned is actually awaiting 

 a communication on the subject promised to his predecessor.'^ 



On August 6, 1844, and before a reply had been made by Lord 

 Aberdeen to Mr. Everett's last note, the American fishing schooner 

 Argus was seized by the Nova Scotia revenue cutter Sylph, while 

 fishing off the coast of Cape Breton at a distance, as reported by the 

 master of the vessel, of not less than fifteen miles from land and 

 "more than three miles to the eastward of a line drawn from the 

 headlands of Cow Bay to Cape North, a distance of fifty miles." ^ 

 The officer making this seizure reported as his reason for making it 

 "that when in command of the Stjlph on the 6th of August last, 

 then cruizing around the coast of Cape Breton, I discovered the 

 Argus some miles off St. Anne's with her crew actually employed 

 fishing; and although more than three miles from any land, still much 

 within the bay that is formed by a straight line drawn from Cape 

 North to the northern head of Cow Bay, and consequently I felt 

 it my duty to take her into Sydney."'' 



Some complaints were made in connection with this seizure of 

 harsh treatment on the part of the captors, which do not require 

 examination here ; and, so far as the seizure involved the question of 

 the interpretation of the meaning of the v/ord "bays" in the treaty, 

 Mr. Everett stated, in bringing the case to the attention of Lord 

 Aberdeen in his note of October 9, 1844, that " the undersigned deems 

 it unnecessar}^, on this occasion, to add anything to the observations 

 contained in his note to Lord Aberdeen, of the 25th, of May on the 

 subject of limitation of the right secured to American fisliing vessels 

 by the treaty of 1783 and the convention of 1818 in reply to the note 

 of his lordship of the 15th of April on the same subject."'^ 



Lord Aberdeen's reply to Mr. Everett's note of May 25, 1844, is 

 dated March 10, 1845, and makes no reference to any of the ques- 

 tions called to his attention by Mr. Everett, except those presented 



o Appendix, p. 479. c Appendix, p. 494. 



6 Appendix, p. 483. t^ Appendix, p. 486. 



