96 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



" You will observe that the points which Her Majesty's Government 

 have to enforce are : 



" 1st. That the three marine miles within which the citizens of the 

 United States are by the Convention prohibited from fishing, must be 

 calculated from the headlands of Nova Scotia, and not as the Ameri- 

 cans contend, from a line curving and corresponding with the coast ; " 



In the same year, Lieutenant Commanding Paine was sent by the 

 United States to inspect the fishing grounds, and he came to the con- 

 clusion that it had become necessary in American interests to claim a 

 right to fish in the bays. In his report (29th December, 1839) no 

 said (British Case, App., p. 121) : 



" In my late cruise on the coasts of Her Britannic Majesty's prov- 

 inces, I found the convention of 1818, on the subject of fisheries, 



109 so variously construed, that I deemed it proper to address tho 

 Navy Department on the subject the letters to which I alluded 



in conversation with you." 



He mentioned as one of "the questions on which dispute may 

 arise : " 



" The meaning of the word Bay, in the convention of 1818, where 

 the Americans relinquish the rights before claimed or exercised, of 

 fishing in or upon any of the coasts, bays, &c., of Her Britannic Maj- 

 esty's provinces, not before described, nearer than three miles. 



" The authorities of Nova Scotia seem to claim a right to exclude 

 Americans from all bays, including those large seas such as the Bay 

 of Fundy and the Bay of Chaleurs; and also to draw a line from 

 headland to headland; the Americans not to approach within three 

 miles of this line. 



" The fishermen, on the contrary, believe they have a right to work 

 any where, if not nearer than three miles to the land." 



And he added : 



"If the grounds assumed by the British provincial authorities be 

 carried out, it will be in their power to drive the Americans from 

 those parts of the coast where are some of the most valuable fisheries: 

 whereas, if the ground maintained by the Americans be admitted, it 

 will be difficult to prevent their procuring articles of convenience, 

 and particularly bait; from which they are precluded by the conven- 

 tion, and which a party in the provinces seems resolved to prevent." 



Two years afterwards the matter was taken up by (he United States 

 Government, and it is at this date that the American claim was first 

 put forward officially. On the 20th February, 1841, the United 

 States Secretary of State wrote to Mr. Stevenson (United States 

 Minister at London) a letter, in which, adopting the idea of Lieu- 

 tenant-Commanding Paine, he said (British Case, App., p. 124) : 



" From information in the possession of the department, it ap- 

 pears that the provincial authorities assume a right to exclude Ameri- 

 can vessels from all their bays, even including those of Fundy and 



