PERIOD FROM 1841 TO 1854. 119 



Not only so, but it would seem tluit my rei)resentations had been 

 successful; for whereas on the 21st of April Lord Aberdeen informed 

 me that the relaxation announced in his note of the 10th of March 

 was intended to apply to the Bay of Fundy alone, Lord Stanley, four 

 weeks afterwards, as we have just seen, wrote to Lord Falkland that 

 her Majesty's government, after mature deliberation, deemed it 

 advisable, for the interests of both countries to extend the relaxation 

 to the other bays. 



The omission of a portion — and that, no doubt, the most important 

 and significant portion — of Lord Stanley's des])atch, as published at 

 Halifax, puts it out of my power to quote from it his own words, as to 

 the extent of the proposed relaxation. It appears, however, suffi- 

 ciently, from the report of Mr. Attorney General Johnston of the 16th 

 June, 1845, that the intention of the imperial government was to 

 admit American fishermen into all bays, creeks, and inlets of which 

 the entrance is more than six miles Avide. I cite a passage from the 

 concluding portion of Mr. Attorney General's letter: 



"It is hoped, my lord, that if an arrangement such as is contem- 

 plated should unhappily be made, its terms may clearly express that 

 the American fishermen are to be excluded from fisliing within three 

 miles of the entrance of the baj^s, creeks, and inlets into which they 

 are not to be permitted to enter. 



"Some doubt on this point rests on the language of Lord Stanley "s 

 despatch; and the making the criterion of the restricted bays, creeks, 

 and inlets to be the width of the double of the three marine miles 

 wouKl strengthen the doubt, by raising the presumption that the 

 shores of these bays, &c., and the shores of the general coast, were to 

 be considered in the same light, and treated on the same footing." 



An extract from another despatch of Lord Stanley, of the 17th of 

 September, will also show that it was intended to admit the American 

 fishermen into all the outer baj's of certain dimensions, as it will also 

 unhappily show the cause wh^' that liberal policy was abandoned 

 which had been adopted, as Lord Stanley, in his letter of the 19th of 

 May, 1845, had stated, with great justice, "for the interests of both 

 countries." 



"Her Majesty's government have attentively considered the repre- 

 sentations contained in your despatches of 17th of June and 2d of 

 July, respecting the policy of granting permission to the fishermen 

 of the L^nited States to fish in the Bay of Chaleurs, and other largo 

 bays of a similar character on the coasts of New Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia, and apprehending from your statements that any such 

 general concession would be injurious to the interests of the British 

 North American provinces, we have abandoned the intention we had 

 entertained on the subject, and shall adhere to tlie strict letter of the 

 treaties which exist between Great Britain and the L^nited States, 

 relative to the fisheries in North America, except in so far as they 

 may relate to tlio Bay of Fundy, whicli has been thrown open to the 

 Americans under certain restrictions." 



You will be able to judge from these authorities whether my letter 

 of the 26th of A])ril, 1845, is justly chargeable with having misled 

 the American public as to the fact that the farther relaxation of the 

 exclusion of our fisliermen from the great bays had been at my 

 instance referred to the Colonial Office, and to the consideration of 

 her Majesty's government. Should the entire despatch from Lord 

 92909 —S. Doc 870, 61-3, vol 1 1« 



