930 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



December. It would seem only fitting that in so grave a matter, in- 

 volving alike the good name of a friendly country and the continued 

 subsistence of previous amicable relations, great care should have been 

 taken to avoid the use of such strong and even hostile language, based 

 upon the unsupported statements of an interested skipper, and one 

 whose reputation for straightforward conduct does not appear to be 

 above reproach, if credence is to be given to the attached description, 

 taken from the Boston Advertiser, of a transaction said to have oc- 

 curred in his native city, and in which Captain Jacobs appears to 

 hare played no enviable part. 



Numerous other instances of like flimsy and unreliable foundations 

 for charges made against the Canadian authorities in regard to their 

 treatment of United States fishing vessels can not have failed to 

 attract the attention of Her Majesty's Government in the dispatches 

 which from time to time have reached it from the United States. 



The master of a United States fishing vessel, imperfectly under- 

 standing the provisions of the convention of 1818, the requirements 

 of the Canadian customs law, or the regulations of Canadian ports, 

 having, perhaps, an exaggerated idea of his supposed rights, or, it 

 may be. desirous of evading all restrictions, is brought to book by offi- 

 cers of the law. He feels aggrieved and angry, and straightway con- 

 veys his supposed grievance to the authorities at Washington. There- 

 upon, without seeming allowance for the possibility of the statement 

 being inaccurate or the narrator unfriendly, and with apparently no 

 attempt to investigate the truth of the statement, it is made the basis 

 of strong and unfriendly charges against the Canadian Government. 

 Canada has suffered from such unfounded representations, and 

 against the course adopted by the United States in this respect the 

 minister enters his most earnest protest. 



As an additional instance of the manner in which evidence is gath- 

 ered and used to the prejudice of the Canadian case the minister calls 

 attention to a communication submitted to the Senate of the United 

 States by Mr. Edmunds, and which forms printed Document No. 54 

 of the Forty-ninth Congress, second session. This is the report of 

 Mr. Spencer F. Baird, United States Fish Commissioner, containing 

 a list, with particulars, of sixty-eight New England fishing vessels 

 which had, as he alleged, " been subjected to treatment which neither 

 the treaty of 1818 nor the principles of international law would seem 

 to warrant." 



The minister observes that it will appear from a perusal of this 

 report that these sixty-eight cases were made up by Mr. Baird's officer 

 from answers of owners, agents, or masters of fishing vessels in re- 

 sponse to a circular letter sent to all New England fishing vessels, 

 inviting them to forward statements of any interference with their 

 operations by the Canadian Government. 



Not a single statement was investigated by the Commissioner or 

 any one acting for him, and not a single statement is accompanied by 

 the affidavit of the person making it, or by corroborative evidence of 

 'Any kind. In most instances, neither date, locality, nor name of Cana- 

 dian officer is given, and an analysis of many "of the cases affords 

 prima facie evidence that they embody no real cause for complaint; 

 yet Mr. Baird and his officer, Mr. Earle, vouched for the correctness 

 and entire reliability of these sixty-eight statements. They were 

 gravely submitted to the Senate as trustworthy evidence of Canadian 



