QUESTION FIVE. 167 



Nova Scotia, tit at the precautions taken by the provincial legislature 

 appear adequate to the purpose, and that being now practically 

 acquiesced in by the Americans, no further measures are required." 



Of course, there was no acquiescence in this interpretation by the 

 United States, as the opinion of the law officers of the Crown had not 

 been given to the Government of the United States, and there had 

 been no communication from the Government of Great Britain upon 

 the subject of Mr. Stevenson's note. 6 



In the light of the interpretation sought to be enforced by the 

 authorities of the Province of Nova Scotia, it is not unexpected that 

 there is found in the Appendix to British Case a despatch from Lord 

 Stanley to Lord Falkland, dated May 19, 1845, the important part 

 of which is now for the first time made known to the Government of 

 the United States, announcing that 



II er Majesty** Government therefore henceforward propose to 

 regard as hays in the sense of the treaty, only those inlets of the sea 

 which measure from headland to headland at their entrance, the 

 double of the distance of three miles, within which it will still ~be 

 prohibited to the -fishing vessels of the United States to approach the 

 coast for the purpose of fishing. 



THE "WASHINGTON" AND THE "ARGUS" CASES. 



The fishermen of the United States continued to prosecute the fish- 

 eries in the Bay of Fundy and other large outer bays, and in the 

 spring of 1843 the authorities of Nova Scotia, for the purpose of 

 making a test case, seized the American schooner Washington on the 

 10th May, 1843, " while fishing in the Bay of Fundy ten miles from 

 the shore." * 



The seizure was promptly reported to the State Department, June 

 30, 1843, and Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State, sent a despatch to Mr. 

 Everett, minister for the United States at London, instructing him 

 to present the subject of the seizure to Her Majesty's Government: 



I need not remark upon the importance to the negotiating inter- 

 ests of the United States of having a proper construction put upon 

 the first article of the convention of 1818 by the parties to it. That 

 which has hitherto obtained is believed to be the correct one. The 

 obvious necessity of an authoritative intervention to put an end to 

 proceedings on the part of the British colonial authorities, alike 



U. S. Case, 108; Appendix, 1046. 



6 U. S. Case, 108. 



c British Case, Appendix, 145 ; U. S. Case, 118-119. 



* U. S. Case, 109, 131 ; Appendix, 474. 



