MISCELLANEOUS. 1241 



within the above-mentioned limits: provided, however, that the 

 American fishermen shall be admitted to enter such bavs and harbors 

 for the purpose of shelter and of repairing damages therein, of pur- 

 chasing wood and of obtaining water and for no other purpose what- 

 ever. But they shall be under such restrictions as may be necessary 

 to prevent their taking, drying, or curing fish therein, or in any other 

 manner whatever abusing the privileges hereby reserved to them.' 



"If this national contract does not exclude the Americans from 

 fishing within the indentations of our coasts and from our lays and 

 harbors, the people of Nova Scotia, while it remained in force, could 

 not complain of the exercise of the right. 



"But we believe the treaty does exclude them, and we but ask a 

 judicial inquiry and determination before these valuable privileges are 

 relinquished: the highest law opinions in England have justified our 

 belief her Majesty's government, in theory, avows and maintains it. 



' 'The compact, too, was in its nature reciprocal; and had the treaty, 

 in this particular, been (as it was not) hard upon the United States, 

 there may doubtless be found, in other parts of it, stipulations at least 

 equally unfriendly to British interests. 



' 'I repeat, my lord, we cannot understand why the Americans should 

 not be held to their bargain; nor can we perceive the principle of justice 

 or prudence which would relax its terms in favor of a foreign people 

 whose means and 'advantages already preponderate so greatly, and 

 that, too, without reciprocal concessions, and at the expense of her 

 Majesty's colonial subjects, whose prosperity is deeply involved in 

 the protection and enlargement of this important element of their 

 welfare. 



' 'If the present concessions to the United States are hoped to end 

 and quiet the controversy between their fishermen and this province, 

 there is too much reason to fear the expectation will end in disappoint- 

 ment. From the greater encouragement that will be given for viola- 

 tion of the treaty, under the modified conditions suggested to be im- 

 posed on the American fishermen, and from the multiplied facilities 

 for evasion and falsehood, increased and not diminished occasions of 

 collision can only be expected; and it may safely be asserted, from a 

 knowledge of the subject and of the parties, that, unless the British 

 government are content to maintain the strict construction of the 

 treaty, as a mere question of past contract and settled right, whatever 

 that construction may be, the encroachment of the American fisher- 

 men will not cease, nor disputes end, until they have acquired unre- 

 stricted license over the whole shores of Nova Scotia. 



"It is hoped, my lord, that if an arrangement such as is contem- 

 plated should unhappily be made, its terms may clearly express that 

 the American fishermen are to be excluded from fishing within three 

 miles of the entrance of the bays, creeks, and inlets, into which they are 

 not to be permitted to come. 



"Some doubt on this point rests on the language of Lord Stanley's 

 despatch, and the making the criterion of the restricted bays, creeks, 

 and inlets to be the width of the double of three marine miles, would 

 strengthen the doubt by raising a presumption that the shores of 

 these bays, &c., and the shores of the general coast, were to be con- 

 sidered in the same light and treated on the same footing. 



' 'To avoid such a construction, no less than to abridge the threat- 

 ened evil, the suggestion made to your lordship by Mr. Stewart that at 



