MISCELLANEOUS. 1251 



playing a game which will not advance materially the interests they 

 nave in view." 



On the 5th of July, Mr. Crampton, the successor of Sir Henry Bul- 

 wer, announced to the President, in a note addressed to the Secretary 

 of State, that he had "been directed by her Majesty's government to 

 bring to the knowledge of the government of the United States a meas- 

 ure which has been adopted by her Majesty's government to prevent 

 a repetition of the complaints which have so frequently been made of 

 the encroachments of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States 

 and of France, upon the fishing-grounds reserved to Great Britain by 

 the convention of 1818. 



"Urgent representations have been addressed to her Majesty's gov- 

 ernment by the governors of the British North American provinces, in 

 regard to these encroachments, whereby the colonial fisheries are most 

 seriously prejudiced, directions have been given by the lords of her 

 Majesty's admiralty for stationing off New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 

 Prince Edward Island, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, such a force of 

 small sailing vessels and steamers as shall be deemed sufficient to pre- 

 vent the infraction of the treaty. It is the command of the Queen, 

 that the officers employed upon this service should be especially en- 

 joined to avoid all interference with the vessels of friendly powers, 

 except where they are in the act of violating the treaty, and on all occa- 

 sions to avoid giving ground of complaint by the adoption of harsh or 

 unnecessary proceedings, when circumstances compel their arrest or 

 seizure." 



Mr. Webster, in a paper dated at the Department of State, on the 

 following day, and published in the Boston Courier of the 19th of July, 

 after citing various documents which refer to the policy of the admin- 

 istration of Lord John Russell, and to that of his successor, the Earl of 

 Derby, touching the colonial fisheries, quotes from another document, 

 that "The vessels-of-war mentioned in the above circular despatches 

 are expected to be upon the coasts of British North America during 

 the present month, (July) when, no doubt, seizures will begin to be 

 made of American fishing vessels, which in the autumn pursue their 

 business in indents of the coast, from which it is contended they are 

 excluded by the convention of 1818. 



"Meantime, and within the last ten days, an American fishing ves- 

 sel called the 'Coral/ belonging to Machias, in Maine, has been seized 

 in the Bay of Fundy, near Grand Menan, by the officer commanding 

 her Majesty's cutter 'Netley,' already arrived in that bay, for an 

 alleged infraction of the fishing convention; and the fishing vessel has 

 been carried to the port of St. John, New Brunswick, where proceed- 

 ings have been taken in the admiralty court, with a view to her con- 

 demnation and absolute forfeiture. 



"Besides the small naval force to be sent out by the imperial gov- 

 ernment, the colonies are bestirring themselves also for the protection 

 of their fisheries. Canada has fitted out an armed vessel, to be sta- 

 tioned in the gulf: and this vessel has proceeded to the fishing-grounds, 

 having on board not only a naval commander and crew, with power to 

 seize vessels within limits, but also a stipendiary magistrate and civil 

 police, to make prisoners of all who are found transgressing the laws of 

 Canada, in order to their being committed to jail, in that colony for 

 trial. 



