1236 MISCELLANEOUS. 



restriction or relaxation, as indeed all the considerations which occur 

 to the undersigned as having probably led her Majesty's government 

 to the relaxation in reference to the Bay of Fundy exist in full and 

 even superior force in reference to the waters on the northeastern 

 coast or Cape Breton, where the 'Argus' was seized. But if her 

 Majesty's provincial authorities are permitted to regard as a 'bay,' 

 any portion of the sea which can be cut off by a direct line connecting 

 two points of the coast, however destitute in other respects of the 

 character usually implied by that name, not only will the waters on 

 the northeastern coast of Cape Breton, but on many other parts of the 

 shores of the Anglo- American dependencies, where such exclusion has 

 not yet been thought of, be prohibited to American fishermen. In 

 fact, the waters which wash the entire southeastern coast of Nova 

 Scotia, from Cape Sable to Cape Canso, a distance on a straight line 

 of rather less than three hundred miles, would in this way constitute 

 a bay, from which United States fishermen would be excluded. 



"The undersigned, however, forbears to dwell on this subject, being 

 far from certain, on a comparison of all that is said in the two notes 

 of Lord Aberdeen of the 10th instant, as to the relaxation proposed by 

 her Majesty's government, that it is not intended to embrace the 

 waters of the northeastern coasts of Cape Breton, as well as the Bay 

 of Fundy. 



"Lord Aberdeen, towards the close of the note in which the purpose 

 of her Majesty's government is communicated, invites the attention 

 of the undersigned to the fact that British colonial fish is, at the 

 present time, excluded by prohibitory duties from the markets of the 

 United States, and suggests that the moment at which the British 

 government are making a liberal concession to United States trade, 

 might be deemed favorable for a counter concession on the part of the 

 United States to British trade, by the reduction of duties which oper- 

 ate so prejudicially to the interests of British colonial fishermen. 



"The undersigned is of course without instructions which enable him 

 to make any definite reply to this suggestion. It is no doubt true that 

 the British colonial fish, as far as duties are concerned, enters the 

 United States market, if at all, to some disadvantage. The government 

 of the United States, he is persuaded, would gladly make any reduction 

 in these duties which would not seriously injure the native fishermen; 

 but Lord Aberdeen is aware that the encouragement of this class of 

 the seafaring community has ever been considered, as well in the 

 United States as Great Britain, as resting on peculiar grounds of expe- 

 diency. It is the great school not only of the commercial but of the 

 public marine, and the highest considerations of national policy 

 require it to be fostered. 



"The British colonial fishermen possess considerable advantages 

 over those of the United States. The remoter fisheries of Newfound- 

 land and Labrador are considerably more accessible to the colonial 

 than to the United States fishermen. The fishing grounds on the 

 coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, abounding in cod, mack- 

 erel and herring, lie at the doors of the former; he is therefore able to 

 pursue his avocation in a smaller class of vessels, and requires a 

 smaller outfit; he is able to use the net and the seine to great advan- 

 tage in the small bays and inlets along the coast, from which the fisher- 

 men of the United States, under any construction of the treaty, are 

 excluded. All, or nearly all the materials of ship-building, timber, 



