PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 909 



with an outline of a proposed ad interim arrangement " for the settle- 

 ment of all questions in dispute in relation to the fisheries on the 

 northeastern coasts of British North America." 



Her Majesty's Government have given their most careful con- 

 sideration to that communication, and it has also received the fullest 

 examination at the hands of the Canadian Government, who entirely 

 share the satisfaction felt by Her Majesty's Government at any 

 indication on the part of that of the United States of a disposition to 

 make arrangements which might tend to put the affairs of the two 

 countries on a basis more free from controversy and misunderstand- 

 ing than unfortunately exists at present. The Canadian Govern- 

 ment, however, deprecate several passages in Mr. Bayard's dispatch 

 which attribute unfriendly motives to their proceedings, and in 

 which the character and scope of the measures they have taken to 

 enforce the terms of the convention of 1818 are, as they believe, 

 entirely misapprehended. 



They insist that nothing has been done on the part of the Cana- 

 dian authorities since the termination of the Treaty of Washington 

 in any such spirit as that which Mr. Bayard condemns, and that all 

 that has been done with a view to the protection of the Canadian 

 fisheries has been simply for the purpose of guarding the rights 

 guaranteed to the people of Canada by the convention of 1818, and 

 of enforcing the statutes of Great Britain and of Canada in relation 

 to the fisheries. They maintain that such statutes are clearly within 

 the powers of the respective Parliaments by which they were passed, 

 and are in conformity with the convention of 1818, especially in view 

 of the passage of the convention which provides that the American 

 fishermen shall be under such restrictions as shall be necessary to 

 prevent them from abusing the privileges thereby reserved to them. 



There is a passage in Mr. Bayard's dispatch to which they have 

 particularly called the attention of Her Majesty's Government. It 

 is the following : 



" The numerous seizures made have been of vessels quietly at 

 anchor in established ports of entry, under charges which up to this 

 day have not been particularized sufficiently to allow of intelligent 

 defense; not one has been condemned after trial and hearing, but 

 many have been fined, without hearing or judgment, for technical 

 violation of alleged commercial regulations, although all commercial 

 privileges have been simultaneously denied to them." 



In relation to this paragraph the Canadian Government observes 

 that the seizures of which Mr. Bayard complains have been made 

 upon grounds which have been distinctly and unequivocally stated 

 in every case; that, although the nature of the charges has be^n 

 invariably specified and duly announced, those charges have not in 

 any case been answered; that ample opportunity has in every case 

 been afforded for a defense to be submitted to the executive author- 

 ities, but that no defense has been offered beyond the mere denial of 

 the right of the Canadian Government; that the courts of the various 

 provinces have been open to the parties said to have been aggrieved, 

 but that not one of them has resorted to those courts for redress. To 

 this it is added that the illegal acts which are characterized by Mr. 

 Bayard as " technical violations of alleged commercial regulations," 

 involved breaches, in most of the cases not denied by the persons wha 

 had committed them, of established commercial regulations which. 



