PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 

 Earl of Kimberley to Lord Lisgar. 



DOWNING STREET, 17th June , 1871. 



MY LORD, I have the honor to enclose, herewith, copies of the 

 Treaty signed at Washington, on May 8th, by the Joint High Com- 

 missioners, which has been ratified by Her Majesty and by the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, and of the Instructions to Her Majesty's 

 High Commissioners and Protocols of the Conferences held by the 

 Commission. The Dominion is, from its geographical position as the 

 immediate neighbor of the United States, so peculiarly interested in 

 the maintenance of cordial relations between that Republic and the 

 British Empire, that it must be a source of satisfaction to the Ca- 

 nadian Government, that Her Majesty has been able to conclude a 

 Treaty for the amicable settlement of differences which might have 

 seriously endangered the good understanding between the two 

 countries. 



Moreover, the Rules laid down in Article VI, as to the international 

 duties of neutral governments are of special importance to the 

 Dominion which carries on such an extensive and increasing mari- 

 time commerce, and possesses such a considerable merchant navy. 



But independently of the advantages which Canada must derive 

 from the removal of the causes of difference with the United States, 

 arising out of occurrences during the civil war, Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment believe that the settlement which has been arrived at of the 

 questions directly affecting British North America, cannot fail to be 

 beneficial to the Dominion. I need not refer to the well known 

 history of the Fishery question, further than to observe that ever 

 since the termination, by the British Government in consequence of 

 the war of 1812, of the liberty enjoyed under the Treaty of 1783, by 

 American citizens of fishing in the territorial waters of the British 

 Colonies, and the renunciation by the United States, in the Treaty 

 of 1818, of all claim to that liberty, this question has in different 

 forms been the subject of controversy with the United States. Her 

 Majesty's Government have always contended for the rights of the 

 Colonies, and they have employed the British Naval forces in the 

 protection of the Colonial fisheries; but they could not overlook the 

 angry feelings to which this controversy has given rise, and the 

 constant risk that in the enforcement of the exclusion of American 

 fishermen from the Colonial waters a collision might take place which 

 might lead to the most serious consequences, and they would have 

 been wanting in their duty, if they had not availed themselves of the 

 opportunity presented by the late negotiation to remove a cause of 



