PERIOD FROM 1841 TO 18o4. 125 



pared to maintain that tlie relaxation granted in 1845 was reasonable 

 and just, and should he adhered to; and, in giving orders to strengtlien 

 the naval force employed to maintain the exercise of our rights 

 under the treaty of 1818, they could not contemj)late that the gov- 

 ernment of the United States would assume that a relaxation formally 

 granted, as regards the Bay of Fundy, was thereby cancelled, with- 

 out the equally formal notice which her Majesty's government 

 would undoubtedly feel themselves bound to have given to an ally 

 of the British Crown, had such an act been intended." 



He further says that it was not "with any view to distvirb arrange- 

 ments made in good faith with the United States government, that 

 Her Majesty's government issued orders to their officers to put a stoj) 

 to illicit proceedings — proceedings which are not merely contrary to 

 treaty, but which are mixed up with smuggling transactions damaging 

 to British interests."'^ The following statement made by Lord 

 Malmesbury in this letter is also of interest: 



As I propose that this despatch shall merely explain away certain 

 points which have clearly been misunderstood, I shall abstain for 

 the present from entering into a discussion upon the interpretation 

 to be given to the term "bay"; and upon this part of the subject 1 

 will onl}'' add that her Majesty's government intended to leave the 

 matter precisely where it w^as left in 1845 by the governments of 

 Great Britain and the United States — namely, that the relaxation as 

 to bays applied, as is stated in Lord Aberdeen's note to Mr. Everett 

 of the 21st of April, 1845, "to the Bay of Fundy alone" — any further 

 discussion of that question being as a matter of negotiation between 

 the two governments. ^ 



Three days later, on the 13th of the same month, Lord Malmesbury 

 wrote to Mr. LawTence on the same subject as follows : 



The orders that are to go out to om- admiral, and of which I have 

 given Mr. Crampton notice, are — 



Not to interfere with the Magdalen islands. 



To consider the Bav of Fundy on the same footing as we placed it 

 in 1845. 



To capture American fishing vessels only under precisely [the] same 

 circumstances as those which would have been acted upon of late 

 years, and when manifestly infringing the treaty. 



To exercise these instructions with the greatest forbearance and 

 moderation.'' 



It appears from Mr. Lawrence's despatch to Mr. Webster, dated 

 August 13, 1852, that at the request of Lord Malmesbury, he had 

 held a further interview with him two days before, and as a residt 

 of that interview, Mr. Lawrence reported as follows: 



Lord Malmesbury will probabl}' propose to leave that part of the 

 treaty about which we disagree, for the present, just where it has been, 



o Appendix, p. 520. b Appendix, p. 521. c Appendix, p. 522. 



