1208 MISCELLANEOUS. 



even to seize them when found there. The government of Nova 

 Scotia was especially zealous and prompt in protecting her supposed 

 interests, and in proclaiming the penalty of confiscation to American 

 intruders upon her coasts. In 1815 the commander of his Majesty's 

 ship-of-war the Jasseur, heeding the clamors of the colonists more 

 than the qualified instructions of the admiralty, commenced the seiz- 

 ure of our fishing vessels; and in one day in June of that year, sent 

 no less than eight into the port of Halifax as lawful prizes. This out- 

 rage, and the right assumed by the commander of this ship to warn 

 our fishermen not to come within sixty miles of the coast, (as else- 

 where remarked,) led to negotiations and to the convention of 1818. 

 Mr. Baker, the British charge d'affaires, in reply to Mr. Monroe's note 

 of July 18, 1815, declared that the commander of the Jasseur had 

 transcended his authority, and gave the assurance that orders had been 

 transmitted to the naval officers on the Halifax and Newfoundland 

 stations,which would "prevent the recurrence of any similar interrup- 

 tion;" but the schooner Nabby was seized by his Majesty's ship Sara- 

 cen, Captain Gore, and proceedings in the admiralty court of Nova 

 Scotia were instituted against her in August, 1818, only two months 

 before the convention was concluded. Eleven other American vessels 

 were seized by Captain Chambers, under orders from Admiral Milne, 

 for alleged violations of British maritime jurisdiction. That some of 

 these vessels were captured for good cause, is quite probable; but yet, 

 the comity between nations, aside from the assurance of the British 

 charg6 d'affaires, required that while negotiations were pending, the 

 officers of the British navy on the American station should have been 

 instructed to suspend captures, and to have merely warned off such 

 vessels as were found infringing upon what were held to be British 

 rights; for it is to be recollected that, claiming, as we did, to fish under 

 the treaty of 1783, we were entitled essentially to exercise all the 

 privileges of catching enjoyed by British subjects, until the differences 

 between the two cabinets were adjusted. 



On the 14th of June, 1819, Parliament passed "An act to enable his 

 Majesty to make regulations with respect to the taking and curing fish 

 on certain parts of the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador, and his 

 Majesty's other possessions in North America, according to a conven- 

 tion made between his Majesty and the United States of America." 



It is now pretended that this law asserts the recent construction of 

 the convention, as relates to our exclusion from the great "bays." 

 That pretension will be examined in due time. The act, after reciting 

 the first article of the convention, provides, first, that "it shall and 

 may be lawful for his Majesty, by and with the advice of his Majesty's 

 privy council, by any order, or order in council, to be from time to 

 time made for that purpose, to make such regulations, and to give 

 such directions, orders, and instructions to the governor of Newfound- 

 land, or to any officer or officers on that station, or to any other per- 

 son or persons, whomsoever, as shall or may be from time to time 

 deemed proper and necessary for the carrying into effect the purposes 

 of the said convention, with relation to the taking, drying, and curing 

 of fish by inhabitants of the United States of America, in common 

 with British subjects, within the limits set forth in the said article of 

 the said convention, and hereinbefore recited; any act or acts of Par- 

 liament, or any law, custom, or usage, to the contrary in any wise 

 notwithstanding." 



