784 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



between the United States and Her Majesty's Government; to request 

 that the David J. Adams, and the other American fishing vessels now 

 under seizure in Canadian ports, be immediately released, and that 

 proper orders may be issued to prevent similar proceedings in the 

 future. And I am also instructed to inform you that the United 

 States will hold Her Majesty's Government responsible for all losses 

 which may be sustained by American citizens in the dispossession of 

 their property growing out of the search, seizure, detention, or sale of 

 their vessels lawfully within the territorial waters of British North 

 America. 



The real source of the difficulty that has arisen is well understood. 

 It is to be found in the irritation that has taken place among a por- 

 tion of the Canadian people on account of the termination by tho 

 United States Government of the treaty of Washington on the 1st 

 of July last, whereby fish imported from Canada into the United 

 States, and which so long as that treaty remained in force was ad- 

 mitted free, is now liable to the import duty provided by the general 

 revenue laws, and the opinion appears to have gained ground in 

 Canada that the United States may be driven, by harassing and 

 annoying their fishermen, into the adoption of a new treaty by which 

 Canadian fish shall be admitted free. 



It is not necessary to say that this scheme is likely to prove as mis- 

 taken in policy as it is indefensible in principle. In terminating the 

 treaty of Washington the United States were simply exercising a 

 right expressly reserved to both parties by the treaty itself, and of 

 the exercise 01 which by either party neither can complain. They 

 will not be coerced by wanton injury into the making of a new one. 

 Nor would a negotiation that had its origin in mutual irritation be 

 promising of success. The question now is, not what fresh treaty 

 may or might be desirable, but what is the true and just construction, 

 as between the two nations, of the treaty that already exists. 



The Government of the United States, approaching this question 

 in the most friendly spirit, cannot doubt that it will be met by Her 

 Majesty's Government in the same spirit, and feels every confidence 

 that the action of Her Majesty's Government in the premises will be 

 such as to maintain the cordial relations between the two countries 

 that have so long happily prevailed. 

 I have the honor to be, &c., 



E. J. PHELPS. 



Eat I Granville to Lord Lansdowne. 



[Telegram.] 



3rd June, 1886. 



The following telegram has been handed to Lord Rosebery by the 

 United States Minister. The telegram commences as follows : 



"Direct Lord Rosebery's attention immediately to the Bill No. 136 

 now pending in the Canadian Parliament. This bill assumes power 

 to execute the Convention of 1818. You will also call his attention 

 to the circular No. 371, issued by the Commissioner of Customs for 

 the Dominion, Mr. Johnson, which orders the seizure of vessels on 

 violation of that Convention. Both of these are unwarranted and 



