PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 815 



Bayard as a supposed and therefore questionable delegation of juris- 

 diction by the Imperial Government of Great Britain. Her Majesty 

 governs in Canada as well as in Great Britain ; the officers of Canada 

 are her officers ; the statutes of Canada are her statutes, passed on the 

 advice of her Parliament sitting in Canada. 



It is, therefore, an error to conceive that because the United States 

 and Great Britain were, in the first instance, the contracting parties 

 to the treaty of 1818, no question arising under that treaty can be 

 " responsibly dealt with," either by the Parliament or by the authori- 

 ties of the Dominion. 



The raising of this objection now is the more remarkable, as the 

 Government of the United States has long been aware of the neces- 

 sity of reference to the colonial legislatures in matters affecting their 

 interests. 



The treaties of 1854 and 1871 expressly provide that, so far as they 

 concerned the fisheries or trade relations with the provinces, they 

 should be subject to ratification by their several legislatures; and 

 seizures of American vessels and goods, followed by condemnation 

 for breach of the provincial customs laws, have been made for forty 

 years without protest or objection on the part of the United States 

 Government. 



The undersigned, with regard to this contention of Mr. Bayard, 

 has further to observe that in the proceedings which have recently 

 been taken for the protection of the fisheries, no attempt has been 

 made to put any special or novel interpretation on the convention of 

 1818. The seizures of the fishing vessels have been made in order to 

 enforce the explicit provisions of that treaty, the clear and long 

 established provisions of the imperial statute and of the statutes of 

 Canada expressed in almost the same language. 



The proceedings which have been taken to carry out the law of the 

 Empire in the present case are the same as those which have been 

 taken from time to time during the period in which the convention 

 has been in force, and the seizures of vessels have been made under 

 process of the imperial court of vice-admiralty established in the 

 provinces of Canada. 



Mr. Bayard further observes that since the treaty of 1818, " a series 

 of laws and regulations affecting the trade between the North Ameri- 

 can provinces and the United States have been respectively adopted 

 by the two countries, and have led to amicable and mutually beneficial 

 relations between their respective inhabitants," and that " the inde- 

 pendent and yet concurrent action of the two Governments has 

 effected a gradual extension from time to time of the provisions of 

 article 1 of the convention of the 3d of July, 1815, providing for 

 reciprocal liberty of commerce between the United States and the 

 territories of Great Britain in Europe, so as gradually to include the 

 colonial possessions of Great Britain in North America and the West 

 Indies within the limits of that treaty." 



Tha undersigned has not been able to discover, in the instances 

 given by Mr. Bayard, any evidence that the laws and regulations 

 affecting the trade between the British North American Provinces 

 and the United States, or that " the independent and yet concurrent 

 action of the two Governments" have either extended or restricted 

 the terms of the convention of 1818, or affected in any way the right 



