856 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



ment in which by both parties took nothing from the property of 

 either; and (2) the preservation to the citizens or subjects of each 

 country of title to property in the other. 



Since Lord Shelburne's premiership this system of reciprocity and 

 mutual convenience has progressed under the treaties of 1842 and 

 1846, so as to give to Her Majesty's subjects, as well as to citizens of 

 the United States, the free use of the river Detroit or both sides of 

 the island Bois Blanc, and between that island and the American 

 and Canadian shores, and all the several channels and passages 

 between the various islands lying near the junction of the river 

 St. Clair with the lake of that name. By the treaty of 1846 the 

 principle of common border privileges was extended to the Pacific 

 Ocean. The still existing commercial articles of the treaty of 1871 

 further amplified those mutual benefits by embracing the use of the 

 inland waterways of either country, and defining enlarged privileges 

 of bonded transit by land and water through the United States for 

 the benefit of the inhabitants of the Dominion. And not only by 

 treaties has the development of Her Majesty's American dominion, 

 especially to the westward, been aided by the United States, but the 

 vigorous contemporaneous growth under the enterprise and energy 

 of citizens of the Northwestern States and Territories of the United 

 States has been productive of almost equal advantages to the ad- 

 jacent possessions of the British Crown, and the favoring legislation 

 by Congress has created benefits in the way of railway facilities 

 which under the sanction of State laws have been and are freely and 

 beneficially enjoyed by the inhabitants of the Dominion and their 

 Government. 



Under this system of energetic and co-operative development the 

 coast of the Pacific has been reached by the transcontinental lines of 

 railway within the territorial limits of the respective countries, and, 

 as I have stated, the United States being the pioneers in this remark- 

 able progress, have been happily able to anticipate and incidentally to 

 promote the subsequent success of their neighbors in British America. 



It will be scarcely necessary for you to say to Lord Iddesleigh that 

 the United States, in thus aiding in the promotion of the prosperity, 

 and in establishing the security of Her Majesty's Canadian dominions, 

 claims no particular credit. It was prompted, in thus opening its ter- 

 ritory to Canadian use, and incidentally for Canadian growth, in 

 large measure by the consciousness that such good offices are part of a 

 system of mutual convenience and advantage growing up under the 

 treaties of peace and assisted by the natural forces of friendly con- 

 tiguity. Therefore it is that we witness with surprise and painful 

 apprehension the United States fishermen hampered in their enjoy- 

 ment of their undoubted rights in the fisheries. 



The hospitalities of Canadian coasts and harbors, which are ours by 

 ancient right, {.ad which these treaties confirm, cost Canada nothing 

 and are productive of advantage to her people. Yet, in defiance of 

 the most solemn obligations, in utter disregard of the facilities and 

 assistances granted by the United States, and in a way especially irri- 

 tating, a deliberate plan of annoyances and aggressions has been in- 

 stituted and plainly exhibited during the last fishing season a plan 

 calculated to drive these fishermen from shores where, without injury 

 to others, they prosecute their own legitimate and useful industry. 



