QUESTION FIVE. 165 



Here is an admission that the Americans conducted the fishery in 

 the Bay of Fnndy; and indeed it has been beyond any doubt estab- 

 lished that American vessels had frequented in great numbers the 

 Bay of Fundy. There is no evidence anywhere to substantiate the 

 statement of Lord Falkland cited in the British Case later made 

 in a despatch to Lord Russell, when his attention was subsequently 

 challenged by a statement in a note from Mr. Stevenson the minister 

 for the United States, that the practice of resorting to the outer bays 

 if not nearer than three miles to land had been resisted by the 

 authorities of Nova Scotia. 6 



The case-stated nowhere contained any assertion of jurisdiction 

 over all bodies of water known as bays; and there was no assertion 

 of jurisdiction with or without the acquiescence of the United States 

 over any waters not found within the three-mile limit. 



The opinion of the law officers of the Crown was requested on the 

 following points material to this question : 



(2) Have American citizens the right under that convention, to 

 enter any of the bays of this Province to take fish, if after they have 

 so entered they prosecute the fishery more than three marine miles 

 from the shores of such bays; or should the prescribed distance of 

 three marine miles be measured from the headlands, at the entrance 

 of such bays, so as to exclude them. (3) If the distance of three 

 marine miles is to be computed from the indents of the coast of Brit- 

 ish America, or from the extreme headlands, and what is to be con- 

 sidered a headland. 



The opinion of the law officers of the Crown was rendered August 

 30, 1841." 



This opinion was never communicated to the Government of the 

 United States, and, although it failed to induce the Government of 

 Great Britain to concur in the interpretation of the renunciatory 

 clause sought by Nova Scotia, as will hereafter be shown, it never- 

 theless eventually became, after the urgent insistance of Nova Scotia, 

 the foundation for the present position of Great Britain as shown by 

 the note of Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Everett of March 10, 1845. e 



Therefore, it is important to clearly point out the extraordinary 

 error in this opinion, upon which was buttressed the right of Great 

 Britain to waters of great extent and of great importance to the people 

 of the United States, and long resorted to by the vessels of the United 

 States. 



British Case, 87. * U. S. Case, Appendix, 1047. 



6 British Case, Appendix, 128. e U. S. Case, 107, 115 ; Appendix, 489. 



C U. S. Case, 105; Appendix, 1046. 



