720 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



pelled to protect the interests of its citizens by such methods as might 

 commend themselves to its judgment. In addition to the Halifax 

 award which we had paid for the privileges and rights the exercise of 

 which is now denied our citizens, we were also continuously paying, in 

 the shape of a remission of duties, some $300,000 per annum for this 

 abortive right. Thus forced into position of antagonism which it pro- 

 foundly regretted, the Government of the United States was about to 

 take such action as would at least suspend this annual payment until 

 the two governments were in accord upon the construction of the 

 treaty, when Her Majesty's Government, through the United States 

 minister in London, suggested, June 9, 1880, that the consideration of 

 the subject be resumed between the two governments, and that in such 

 consideration, the two questions of the interpretation of the treaty and 

 the attack upon the American fishermen be separated. To that sug- 

 gestion I replied June 12, 1880, communicating my great gratification 

 at the friendly disposition of the British cabinet, and saying that the 

 President would be quite ready to entertain any considerations which 

 may be presented to the Secretary of State to relieve the question of 

 the fisheries from its present difficulties. 



On October 27, 1880, Lord Granville addressed you the communica- 

 tion which is the subject of this dispatch. I regret to find in this 

 communication a disposition to restrict a liberal compensation for an 

 acknowledged wrong by limitations of the fishing rights accorded by 

 the treaty, to which this government cannot consent. The use of the 

 strand, not as the basis of an independent fishing, but as auxiliary to 

 the use of the seine in these waters, where seine-fishing is the only pos- 

 sible mode of taking herring, has been maintained by this govern- 

 ment in my former dispatches, and would seem to be justified by the 

 explicit declaration of Her Majesty's Government in the " case " sub- 

 mitted by them to the Halifax commission, in which referring to the 

 use of the shores, it is affirmed " without such permission the practical 

 use of the inshore fisheries was impossible." But as Lord Granville 

 distinctly refers the propriety and justice of these limitations to fur- 

 ther negotiations, I will not now discuss them, reserving what I deem 

 it right to say for a future dispatch in reference to the second of his 

 lordship's suggestions. 



I have recalled to your attention the history of the Fortune Bay 

 outrage in order that you may express to Her Britannic Majesty's 

 Government the great disappointment which this long delay in its 

 settlement has occasioned. The circumstances under which it oc- 

 curred were such as to induce this government to anticipate prompt 

 satisfaction, and it is impossible not to feel that the course which the 

 British Government has thought fit to pursue has seriously affected 

 public opinion as to the worth of the treaty which it was hoped by 

 both countries had promoted an amicable solution of long-standing 

 difficulties. 



The United States government cannot feel that justice has been 

 done its citizens in the protracted discussion which this occurrence 

 has provoked, and while perfectly willing to endeavor, in concert with 

 Her Britannic Majesty's Government, to find some practical and 

 friendly solution of the differences of construction as to the treaty 

 provisions which their application seems to have developed, this gov- 

 ernment cannot consent that pending such discussion, its citizens 



