1242 MISCELLANEOUS. 



least this width should be more than the double of three marine miles 



say three or four times more ought, I think, to be strongly enforced. 



' 'I have the honor to be, your lordship's most obedient servant, 



"J. W. JOHNSTON. 

 "To the Right Hon. His Excellency 



"VISCOUNT FALKLAND, Lieut. Governor, &c., &c., cfcc." 



Meantime New Brunswick was as active to prevent the measures 

 under consideration of the British ministry as her sister colony of Nova 

 Scotia. The Hon. Charles Simonds, speaker of the House of Assembly, 

 and a gentleman of great wealth and of high consideration in colo- 

 nial circles, was deputed by the council of the first named possession 

 of the crown to attend to its interests, and to remonstrate against 

 further "concessions." On his arrival in England he met the Hon. 

 George R. Young, a distinguished personage of Nova Scotia, who was 

 anxious to join him in behalf of his own colony. The Gaspe Fishing 

 and Mining Company selected an agent to act with them, and the 

 three gentlemen waited upon a member of the Board of Trade, to 

 whom they communicated their views of the case. 



Interviews with several other functionaries followed; and, finally, 

 they met Lord Stanley, the secretary for the colonies, to whom Mr. 

 Simonds, as the only one who was officially authorized to address his 

 lordship, made "a strong representation" of the injurious conse- 

 quences certainly to result to her Majesty's American subjects, were 

 the negotiations with Mr. Everett to be concluded on the basis pro- 

 posed. The secretary assured him, in reply, that "nothing should be 

 done to injure the colonies;" and Mr. Simonds, after his return to New 

 Brunswick, stated his entire confidence in the effect of his "repre- 

 sentations" to change the designs entertained by the ministry. 



The liberal policy towards the United States, known to have had the 

 positive sanction of the first minister of the crown, (the late Sir Robert 

 reel,) w r hich was designed to remove all reasonable complaints on our 

 part, was abandoned. It was defeated by the means here stated, and 

 by memorials to the Queen, from merchants and others in New Bruns- 

 wick and Nova Scotia, which w r e need not specially mention. Tidings 

 of success soon reached the gratified colonists. On the 17th of Sep- 

 tember, 1845, Lord Stanley thus wTote to Lord Falkland: 



"Her Majesty's government have attentively considered the repre- 

 sentations contained in your despatches Nos. 324 and 331, of the 17th 

 of June and 2d of July, respecting the policy of granting permission 

 to the fisheries of the United States to fish in the Bay of Chaleurs, and 

 other large bays of a similar character on the coasts of New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia; and apprehending from your statements that any 

 such general concession would be injurious to the interests of the 

 British North American provinces, we have abandoned the intention 

 we had entertained on the subject, and shall adhere to the strict letter 

 of the treaties which exist between Great Britain and the United 

 States relative to the fisheries of North America, except in so far as 

 they may relate to the Bay of Fundy, which has been thrown open to 

 the North Americans under certain restrictions. 



" In announcing this decision to you, I must, at the same tune, direct 

 your attention to the absolute necessity of a scrupulous observance of 

 those treaties on the part of the colonial authorities, and to the danger 

 which cannot fail to arise from any overstrained assumption of the 



