898 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



it could be regarded as in violation of the terms of the treaty, and no 

 such statute has been as yet produced. 



In respect to the charge subsequently brought against the Adams, 

 and upon which many other vessels have been seized, that of a tech- 

 nical violation of the customs act, in omitting to report at the custom- 

 house, though having no business at the port (and in some instances 

 where the vessel seized was not within several miles of the land- 

 ing), the United States Government claim, while not admitting that 

 the omission to report was even a technical transgression of the act, 

 that even if it were, no harm having been done or intended, the pro- 

 ceedings against the vessels for an inadvertence of that sort were in a 

 high degree harsh, unreasonable, and unfriendly, especially as for 

 many years no such effect has been given to the act in respect to the 

 fishing vessels, and no previous notice of a change in its construction 

 has been promulgated. 



It seems apparent, therefore, that the cases in question, as they are 

 to be considered between the two Governments, present no points 

 upon which the decision of the courts of Nova Scotia need be awaited 

 or would be material. 



Nor is it any longer open to the United States Government to an- 

 ticipate that the acts complained of will (as said by Mr. Fish in the 

 dispatch above quoted) be repudiated as the " pretensions of over- 

 zealous officers of the * * * colonial vessels," because they have 

 been so many times repeated as to constitute a regular system of pro- 

 cedure, have been directed and approved by the Canadian Govern- 

 ment, and have been in no wise disapproved or restrained by Her 

 Majesty's Government, though repeatedly and earnestly protested 

 against on the part of the United States. 



It is therefore to Her Majesty's Government alone that the United 

 States Government can look for consideration and redress. It can 

 not consent to become, directly or indirectly, a party to the proceed- 

 ings complained of, nor to await their termination before the ques- 

 tions involved between the two Governments shall be dealt with. 

 Those questions appear to the United States Government to stand 

 upon higher grounds, and to be determined, in large part, at least, 

 upon very different considerations from those upon which the courts 

 of Nova Scotia must proceed in the pending litigation. 



Lord Iddesleigh, in the note above referred to, proceeds to express 

 regret that no reply has yet been received from the United States 

 Government to the arguments on all the points in controversy con- 

 tained in the report of the Canadian minister of marine and fisheries, 

 of which Lord Rosebery had sent me a copy. 



Inasmuch as Lord Iddesleigh and his predecessor, Lord Rosebery. 

 have declined altogether, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, 

 to discuss these questions until the cases in which they arise shall 

 have been judicially decided, and as the very elaborate arguments 

 on the subject previously submitted by the United States Govern- 

 ment, remain, therefore without reply, it is not easy to perceive why 

 further discussion of it on the part of the United States should be 

 expected. So soon as Her Majesty's Government consent to enter 

 upon the consideration of the points involved, any suggestions it 

 may advance will receive immediate and respectful attention on the 



