1230 MISCELLANEOUS. 



that he is under the impression that the question of the legality of that 

 measure is still pending before the judicial committee of her Majesty's 

 privy council. It would be very doubtful whether rights secured to 

 American vessels under public compacts could, under any circum- 

 stances, be impaired by acts of subsequent domestic legislation; but 

 to proceed to capture American vessels, in virtue of such acts, while 

 their legality is drawn in question by the home government, seems to 

 be a measure as unjust as it is harsh." 



And he remarked, further, that "it is stated by the captain of the 

 'Argus' that the commander of the Nova Scotia schooner, by which he 

 was captured, said that he was within three miles of the line beyond 

 which, 'on their construction of the treaty, we were a lawful prize, and 

 that he seized us to settle the question.' 



"The undersigned again feels it his duty, on behalf of his govern- 

 ment, formally to protest against an act of this description. American 

 vessels of trifling size, and pursuing a branch of industry of the most 

 harmless description, which, however beneficial to themselves, occa- 

 sions no detriment to others, instead of being turned off the debatable 

 fishing ground a remedy fully adequate to the alleged evil are pro- 

 ceeded against as if engaged in the most undoubted infractions of 

 municipal law or the law of nations, captured and sent into port, their 

 crews deprived of their clothing and personal effects, and the vessels 

 subjected to a mode of procedure in the courts which amounts in many 

 cases to confiscation; and this is done to settle the construction of a 

 treaty. 



"A course so violent and unnecessarily harsh would be regarded by 

 any government as a just cause of complaint against any other witn 

 whom it might differ in the construction of a national compact. But 

 when it is considered that these are the acts of a provincial govern- 

 ment, with whom that of the United States has and en n have no inter- 

 course, and that they continue and are repeated while the United 

 States and Great Britain, the only parties to the treaty, the purport of 

 whose provisions is called in question, are amicably discussing the 

 matter, with every wish, on both sides, to bring it to a reasonable 

 settlement, Lord Aberdeen \vill perceive that it becomes a subject of 

 complaint of the most serious kind. 



"As such, the undersigned is instructed again to bring it to Lord 

 Aberdeen's notice, and to express the confident*hope that such meas- 

 ures of redress as the urgency of the case requires will, at the instance 

 of his lordship, be promptly resorted to." 



The events of 1845 were highly interesting and important. The 

 colonists had, apparently, accomplished their long-cherished plans. 

 The opinion of the crown lawyers in 1841 ; the declaration of 

 Lord Stanley in 1842, that our government "practically acquiesced" 

 in the new construction of the convention; and the capture of the 

 Washington in 1843, for an infringement of that construction, and 

 for no other offence whatever, were all calculated to impress 

 them with the belief that the contest was at an end. Such, 

 I confess, was the inclination of my own mind. My home 

 was on the frontier; I was a dealer in the products of the 

 sea, and was in the daily transaction of business with fisher- 

 men of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and was well advised of 

 the measures which were adopted by the colonists, from time to time, 

 to induce the ministry at home to sustain their pretensions. The 



