PERIOD FROM 1841 TO 1854. 115 



by the seizure^of the Washington, with respect to which the position 

 of the British Government is stated as follows: 



Her Majesty's government must still maintain, and in this view 

 they are fortified by high legal authority, that the Bay of Fundy 

 is rightfully claimed by Great Britain as a l)ay within the meaning 

 of the treaty of ISlcS. And they equally maintain the ])osition which 

 was laid down in the note of the undersigned, dated the loth of 

 April last, that, with regard to the other bays on the British Ameri- 

 can coasts, no United States' fisherman has, under that convention, 

 the right to fish within three miles of the entrance of such bays as 

 designated by a line drawn from headland to headland at that 

 entrance. 



But while her Majesty's government still feel themselves bound to 

 maintain these positions as a matter of right, they are nevertheless 

 not insensible to the advantages which would accrue to both coun- 

 tries from a relaxation of the exercise of that right; to the United 

 States as conferring a material benefit on their fishing trade; and to 

 Great Britain and the United States, conjointly and equally, by the 

 removal of a fertile source of disagreement between them. 



Her Majesty's government are also anxious, at the same time that 

 they uphold the just claims of the British crown, to evince by every 

 reasonable concession their desire to act liberally and amicably 

 towards the United States. 



The undersigned has accordingly much pleasure in announcing to 

 Mr. Everett, the determination to Vvdiich her Majesty's government 

 have come to relax in favor of the United States fishermen that right 

 which Great Britain has hitherto exercised, of excluding those fisher- 

 men from the British portion of the Bay of Fundy, and they are pre- 

 pared to direct their colonial authorities to allow henceforward the 

 United States fishermen to pursue their avocations in any part of the 

 Bay of Fundy, provided they do not approach except in the cases 

 specified in the treaty of 1818, within three miles of the entrance 

 of any bay on the coast of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.'' 



On the same day Lord Aberdeen also wrote to ]\Ir. Everett in 

 reply to liis note of October 9, 1844, on the seizure of the Argus in 

 regard to which he says: 



As the point of the construction of the convention of 1818 with 

 reference to the rights of fishing on the coasts of the Anglo-American 

 dependencies, by citizens of the United States, is treated in another 

 note of the undersigned of this day's date, relative to the case of the 

 Washington, the undersigned abstains from again touching upon 

 that subject, and wiU confine himself in this note to the point of the 

 harsh treatment of the patron and crew of. the Argus by the com- 

 mander of the Nova Scotia revenue cruiser • Sylph, which is alleged 

 in Mr. Everett's note of the 9th of October and its enclosures.^ 



In acknowledging the receipt of these two notes Mr. Everett says 

 in his note of March 25, 1845, to Lord Aberdeen: 



o Appendix, p. 489. & Appendix, p. 490. 



