1218 MISCELLANEOUS. 



vexatious proceedings of the authorities of I^ova Scotia against the 

 citizens of the United States engaged in the fisheries, and to request 

 that measures may be forthwith adopted by the British government 

 to remedy the evil arising out of the misconstruction, on the part of 

 the provincial authorities, of their conventional engagements, and 

 prevent the possibility of the recurrence of similar acts. The under- 

 signed renews to Lord Palmerston, &c. 



"A. STEVENSON. 

 "32, UPPER GROSVENOR STREET, 



" March 27, 1841." 



This despatch was transmitted to the Secretary for the Colonies on 

 the 2d of April, and (seven days later) a copy of it was sent to Lord 

 Falkland, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, with a request that 

 his lordship would make immediate inquiry into the allegations con- 

 tained in it, and furnish the Colonial Office with a detailed report on 

 the subject, for the information of her Majesty's government. On the 

 28th of the same month, Lord Falkland wrote to Lord John Russell, 

 that "The greatest anxiety is felt by the inhabitants of this province 

 that the convention with the Americans, signed at London on the 

 20th October, 1818, should be strictly enforced; and it is hoped that 

 the consideration of the report may induce your lordship to exert 

 your influence in such a manner as to lead to the augmentation of the 

 force (a single vessel) now engaged in protecting the fisheries on the 

 Banks of Newfoundland, and the south shore of Labrador, and the 

 employment, in addition, of one or two steamers for that purpose. 



"The people of this colony have not been wanting in efforts to 

 repress the incursions of the natives of the United States upon their 

 fishing grounds, but have fitted out with good effect some small 

 armed vessels, adapted to follow trespassers into shoal water, or 

 chase them on the seas;" and that, "finding their own means inade- 

 quate to the suppression of this evil, the Nova Scotians earnestly 

 entreat the further . intervention and protection of the mother 

 country." 



His lordship's letter enclosed a copy of a report of a committee 

 on the fisheries of Nova Scotia, which had been adopted by the House 

 of Assembly, and a "case" stated, at the request of that body, "for 

 the purpose of obtaining the opinion of the law officers of the crown 

 in England." The preamble of the latter document recites the rights 

 stipulated in the treaty of 1783; the fact of the war between England 

 and the United States in 1812; the first article of the convention of 

 1818; and refers to the act of Parliament of 1819, passed to meet 

 the conditions of the convention, and also to the act of Nova Scotia 

 of 1836; and concludes with submitting to the consideration of the 

 Queen's advocate, and her Majesty's attorney general, the following 

 seven queries: 



1. Whether the treaty of 1783 was annulled by the war of 1812, 

 and whether citizens of the United States possess any right of 

 fishery in the waters of the lower provinces other than ceded to 

 them by the convention of 1818; and if so, what right? 



2. Have American citizens the right, under that convention, to 

 enter any of the bays of this province to take fish, if, after they have 

 so entered, they prosecute the fishery more than three marine miles 

 from the shores of such bays; or should the prescribed distance of 



