1296 MISCELLANEOUS. 



colonial cutter came on board, from an old black fishing-shallop, with 

 eleven men, and told him that he "had violated the treaty by salting 

 his mackerel in the harbor." The colonial officer "put the men, 

 except two, on shore, without money or friends, and took the vessel, 

 with the captain and the two other men, to the Gut of Canso, where 

 his cutter was lying, and on the following day to Arichat. The ves- 

 sel was here stripped of her sails and rigging." On a hearing before 

 the admiralty court, the Commerce was released; and, continues the 

 captain, he "received an order, which was sealed up, addressed to the 

 officer at Arichat, directing, as he was informed, the clearance of his 

 vessel free of all expenses, and leaving him to get back as he could. 

 On arriving at Arichat, he found one anchor taken from his vessel, 

 and he was compelled to pay $22 for wharfage, and for taking care of 

 the vessel." The American consul for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and 

 Newfoundland, corroborates the captain in the most important par- 

 ticulars. He remarks: "Off Prince Edward Island, one of our fish- 

 ing-vessels lost her boat and injured her sails, and was obliged*to put 

 into Port Hood for a harbor. While there the captain was cleaning 

 some of his mackerel, when his vessel was seized by the British reve- 

 nue cutter and taken into Arichat, where the vessel was stripped of 

 all her sails. As soon as I heard of the particulars from my consular 

 agent at Port Hood, I immediately informed our government of the 

 facts, and laid the case before the authorities at Halifax, who, after a 

 delay of some three months, concluded to release the vessel ; the con- 

 sequence was, the owners were put to great expense, and the captain 

 and crew, many of whom had large families, lost their whole fishing 

 season." 



The number of our fishing vessels seized between 1818 and 1851 

 was fifty-one ; of which, twenty-six were released without trial or by 

 decree of the admiralty court, and twenty-five were condemned. The 

 cases which we have examined embrace upwards of one-half of the 

 whole number captured during a period or more than thirty years. 

 Fifteen or sixteen thousand voyages, at the lowest computation, must 

 have been made to the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 

 Prince Edward Island; and yet, notwithstanding the hostile spirit 

 which has been manifested by the first-named colony, from the first, 

 and notwithstanding the inducements held out to the colonial officers 

 by the provisions of the act of 1836, there have been barely fifty-one 

 prizes. In view of this fact, the story of "American aggressions," 

 with which the world has rung for upwards of a generation, becomes 

 a mere fable. 



Of the cases which we have noticed somewhat minutely, there is not 

 one of a flagrant nature. Those of the Reindeer and Ruby are seem- 

 ingly such ; but whoever reads the statement of the British officer with 

 care, will hardly find satisfactory proof, even by his own showing, that 

 the muskets of which he speaks were fired from these very vessels, or 

 that they were concerned in the outrages of which he complains. Cer- 

 tain it is, that the masters and owners, who were known to me, denied 

 the allegations made against them; and that the injustice of the sei- 

 zure, and the tardy redress to be obtained by an application to our 

 government as understood at the time were the causes of the rescue. 



The pretences upon which some of the twenty-eight vessels included 

 in our examination were seized, are disgraceful beyond degree; and 

 that of the number, several were condemned without the shadow of a 



