710 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



the law into their own hands and forcibly preventing American fish- 

 ermen from exercising the rights to which their own Government 

 considered them entitled, Mr. Evarts declared that there was no 

 ground for the charge which I had made, that he was now the first 

 to recommend to Congress a violation of the Treaty. On the con- 

 trary, he maintained that it was we who had allowed and sustained 

 an infraction of the Treaty by the Newfoundland fishermen, looking 

 at the interpretation given to it by the United States. There was 

 then nothing left but one of two things : either to protect the Ameri- 

 can fishermen by the presence of men-of-war, which might have led 

 to a conflict, or to re-impose the duty on fish, the taking off of which 

 had been part of the price paid by the United States for the free 

 enjoyment of the right of fishing. 



I asked Mr. Evarts whether he could conscientiously assert that, if 

 British subjects had availed themselves of the privilege of fishing on 

 the United States' coasts, they would have been allowed advantages, 

 either as to the mode or time of fishing, over the native fishermen? 

 He replied that if the former had attempted to take any such advan- 

 tages, the United States' Government would immediately have rec- 

 ommended that the same rights should be allowed to the natives, 

 " But," I said, " such a step would have led to the entire destruction 

 of the fisheries." This idea Mr. Evarts ridiculed; indeed, it seems 

 to be the firm conviction of those in this country who have most stud- 

 ied the matter, that no amount of catching will lead to any perceptible 

 diminution in the quantity of fish ; but that there are other causes, not 

 yet well understood, arising from local circumstances, storms, &c., 

 which occasionally drive the fish away from the points which they 

 have been in the habit of visiting. 



Mr. Evarts thinks that there has been unnecessary delay in replying 

 to his representations, and that sufficient attention has not been paid 

 to his arguments; and that Lord Salisbury's note of the 3rd ultimo 

 seemed to imply that the Newfoundland fishermen were justified in 

 their attack upon the Americans, and would be encouraged to a repe- 

 tition of similar conduct on future occasions. 



There is also a strong desire on the part of the United States' Gov- 

 ernment, in view of the approaching end of the term for which fish- 

 ing rights were granted by the Treaty, that it should not be supposed 

 that the value which has been assigned to the fisheries by the Treaty 

 and the Halifax Award is one w r hich can ever be admitted or acknowl- 

 edged by the United States as a precedent for any future arrange- 

 ment. 



I had the honour to transmit copies of the President's Message to 

 Congress, accompanied by Mr. Evarts' Report upon the subject in 

 my despatch of the 18th instant. The papers which were transmitted 

 with Mr. Evarts' Report have not yet been printed. 



I also inclose copies of a bill which was submitted to the House of 

 Representatives on the 18th instant by Mr. Loring, a member from 

 Massachusetts, which proposes that Collectors of Customs should be 

 instructed to collect on fish and fish-oil the duties imposed before the 

 Act of the 1st March, 1873 ; and that from the duties so collected the 

 sum of 125,000 dollars should be set apart for the compensation of 

 the United States' fishermen " who were driven from Fortune Bay on 

 the 6th January, 1878." The Bill was referred to the Committee on 



