104 ARGUMENT OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Case, App., p. 145) was, indeed, unsettled, but, as to it. Mr. Everett 

 anticipated a favourable response. The United States, therefore, had 

 good reason for gratification. On the other hand, Great Britain 

 had obtained an admission of the general claim to bays for which she 

 had always contended. It is to be remembered, too, that this admis- 

 sion by Mr. Everett was approved of by the President of the United 

 States. (British Case, App., p. 135.) 



Both parties appear to have assumed that differences had practi- 

 cally been settled. The British Government, on its part, continued to 

 exclude American fishermen from all the bays, except the Bay of 

 Fundy; and very shortly after the arrival at Washington of Lord 

 Aberdeen's letter, a paragraph appeared (June, 1845) in the " Union " 

 (United States Case, App., pp. 549, 1264-5. British Case, App., 

 p. 197)- 



" a newspaper " (as Mr. Lorenzo Sabine said in his report) " supposed 

 to enjoy the confidence of our government, and said, in the popular 

 sentiment, to be its ' organ ' " (United States Case, App., p. 1231) 



in the following terms : 



" We are gratified to be now enabled to state, that a despatch has 

 been recently received at the Department of State from Mr. Everett, 

 our minister at London, with which he transmits a note from Lord 

 Aberdeen, containing the satisfactory intelligence that, after a recon- 

 sideration of the subject, although the Queen's government adhere to 

 the construction of the convention which they have always main- 

 tained, they have still come to the determination of relaxing 

 118 from it, so far as to allow American fishermen to pursue their 

 avocations in any part of the Bay of Fundy, provided they do 

 not approach ^except in the cases specified in the treaty of 1818 

 within three miles of the entrance of any bay on the coast of Nova 

 Scotia or New Brunswick. 



" This is an important concession, not merely as removing an occa- 

 sion of frequent and unpleasant disagreement between the two gov- 

 ernments, but as reopening to our citizens those valuable fishing 

 grounds within the Bay of Fundy which they enjoyed before the 

 war of 1812, but from which, as the British government has since 

 maintained, they were excluded by the convention of 1818." 



It will be observed that the language of the proviso is a textual 

 reproduction of Lord Aberdeen's letter, even to the use of the italic 

 letters in the word " entrance" 



REPORT OF MR. SABINE. 



This announcement was unpalatable to some Americans interested 

 in fishing. It aroused the opposition of Mr. Lorenzo Sabine, who 

 for the next year laboured, with letters and newspaper articles, to 

 rouse public opinion. He was unsupported, and as he himself said 

 abandoned the design finally in despair. (United States Case, App., 

 pp. 1231-2.) 



