MISCELLANEOUS. 1285 



to the purpose, and that being now practically acquiesced in by the 

 Americans, no further measures are required." The opinion thus 

 disposed of in November, 1842, was suffered to rest until the capture 

 of the Washington and the Argus. Mr. Everett's arrangement in 

 1845 was, in effect, an abandonment of the whole matter. 



Seven years of comparative quiet on the fishing grounds elapse, and 

 we are brought to the exciting events of 1852. 



There is another remarkable circumstance connected with this con- 

 troversy, which should not escape notice namely, that New Bruns- 

 wick, Prince Edward Island, and Canada, up to the time of the 

 Toronto agreement in 1851, remained almost passive spectators of the 

 belligerent attitude of their sister colony of Nova Scotia. The sub- 

 ject of "American aggressions" as we have shown has been one 

 of profound interest to the last mentioned dependency of the crown 

 for a long period. To find commiseration neither at home nor 

 abroad, is a grievance hard to be borne. To show, year after year, 

 and for an entire generation, in petitions to the throne, in legislative 

 reports, and in newspaper essays, that the most ruinous consequences 

 had resulted, and would continue to follow the permission to Ameri- 

 cans to pass through the Strait of Canso, and to fish in the bays of 

 British America, and yet, after all, to awaken no sympathy on the 

 part of fellow-colonists, and no determined action on the part of the 

 ministers of the Queen, is a misfortune which even the aggressors 

 themselves are bound to appreciate. 



But I may say that fishermen, without treaty stipulations to favor 

 and protect them, have sometimes fared far better than it is possible 

 for ours to do, if the views of the crown lawyers are carried out in 

 their most obvious sense. 



The fishermen of almost every civilized nation have pursued their 

 business either on implied or written sanctions. They have been per- 

 mitted to follow their calling even in war. The hostile relations be- 

 tween England and Holland though the ocean was stained with the 

 blood of the subjects of each for several generations did not, except 

 in particular cases and for short periods, break up the Dutch fishery 

 on the English coast. In the war of our own Revolution, "rebels" 

 though we were, Berkeley, of the Scarborough frigate, while occupy- 

 ing the Piscataqua, allowed the fishermen or that river free pass, out 

 and in; and so, too, Admiral Digby, moved with compassion for the 

 sufferings of the people of Nantucket, gave them written permits to 

 resume whaling; and the fact that a vessel* thus protected by his 

 humanity was the first to bear pur new-born flag to the Thames, and 

 to draw out all London to see it, will be remembered, perhaps, when 

 the records of battles shall be torn and scattered. 



Nor did the war of 1812, with all the desolation and bad feeling 

 which it caused, form an exception to the rule so commonly observed. 

 I refer for instances to the passports of Admiral Hotham to the people 

 of Nantucket; to the permissions granted by Sir George Collier to all 

 fishing-boats and vessels under thirty tons; and to the ordinary and 

 almost universal practice of British commanders along our coast, of 

 allowing the taking of fish to be carried to our towns and cities, and to 



*Her arrival was announced in Parliament. Mr. Hammet said he " begged leave to 

 inform the House of a very recent and extraordinary occurrence." After stating the 

 name "the Bedford, Mooree, master" he adds, she "wears the rebel colors, and 

 belongs to the island of Nantucket, in Massachusetts." 



