1222 MISCELLANEOUS. 



"For a full understanding of the whole question involved, I would 

 particularly point your attention to the instructions of this depart- 

 ment to Mr. Stevenson, Nos. 71 and 89, of the respective dates of 

 April 17, 1840, and February 20, 1841, and to the several despatches 

 addressed by that minister to the Secretary of State, numbered 97, 99, 

 108, 120, and 124, during the years 1840 and 1841. 



"I need not remark upon the importance to the negotiating inter- 

 ests of the United States of having a proper construction put upon the 

 first article of the convention of 1818 by the parties to it. That which 

 has hitherto obtained is believed to be the correct one. The obvious 

 necessity of an authoritative intervention to put an end to proceedings 

 on the part of the British colonial authorities, alike conflicting with 

 their conventional obligations, and ruinous to the fortunes and sub- 

 versive of the rights of an enterprising and deserving class of our fel- 

 low-citizens, is too apparent to allow this government to doubt that 

 the government of h^r Britannic Majesty will take efficient steps for 

 the purpose. The President's confident expectation of an early and 

 satisfactory adjustment of these difficulties is grounded upon his reli- 

 ance on the sense of justice of the Queen's government, and on the 

 fact that from the year 1818, the date of the convention, until some 

 years after the enactment of the provincial law out of which these 

 troubles have arisen, a practical construction has been given to the 

 first article of that instrument which is firmly relied on as settling its 

 meaning in favor of the rights of American citizens as claimed by the 

 United States. 



"I have, therefore, to request that you will present this subject 

 again to the consideration of her Majesty's government by addressing 

 a note to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, reminding 

 him that the letter of Mr. Stevenson to Lord Palmerston remains un- 

 answered, and informing him of the anxious desire of the President 

 that proper means should be taken to prevent the possibility of a 

 recurrence of any like cause of complaint." 



Mr. Everett, on the 10th of August of the same year, thus ably and 

 clearly stated his views : 



"The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 

 tiary of the United States or America, has the honor to transmit to the 

 Earl of Aberdeen, her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs, the accompanying papers relating to the seizure on the 10th of 

 May last, on the coast of Nova Scotia, by an officer of the provincial 

 customs, of the American fishing schooner Washington, of Newbury- 

 port, in the State of Massachusetts, for an alleged infraction of the 

 stipulations of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818, between 

 the United States and Great Britain. 



"It appears from the deposition of William Bragg, a seaman on 

 board the Washington, that at the time of her seizure she was not 

 within ten miles of the coast of Nova Scotia. By the first article of 

 the convention above alluded to, the United States renounce any lib- 

 erty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by their inhabitants to take, dry, 

 or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts of her 

 Majesty's dominions in America, for which express provision is not 

 made in the said article. This renunciation is the only limitation 

 existing on the right of fishing upon the coasts of her Majesty's do- 

 minions in America, secured to the people of the United States by the 

 third article of the treaty of 1783. 



