106 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



In a later passage, Mr. Sabine again spoke of Mr. Everett's " ar- 

 rangement of 1845," and said that it was " in effect an abandonment 

 of the whole matter." (United States Case, App., p. 1285.) 



United States acceptance of the Aberdeen settlement is, moreover, 

 the only possible explanation of the fact stated in Mr. Sabine's Re- 

 port that (United States Case, App., p. 1248) 



" as far as there is evidence before the public, the fisheries were not 

 once mentioned by Mr. McLane, (who succeeded Mr. Everett,) in his 

 correspondence with the British government, during his mission. 

 Nothing, in fact, seems to have passed between the two cabinets rela- 

 tive to the subject for more than six years, though England retraced 

 no step after opening the Bay of Fundy." 



After the settlement had been in operation for some years, the 

 President of the United States, in his Message of December 1852, 

 said (United States Case, App., p. 1265) : 



"American fishing vessel's, within nine or ten years, have 

 120 been excluded from waters to which they had free access for 

 twenty-five years after the negotiation of the treaty. In 1845, 

 this exclusion was relaxed so far as concerns the Bay of Fundy, but 

 the just and liberal intention of the home government, in compliance 

 with what we think the true construction of the convention, to open 

 all the other outer bays to our fishermen, was abandoned, in conse- 

 quence of the opposition of the colonies. Notwithstanding this, the 

 United States have, since the Bay of Fundy was reopened to our 

 fishermen in 1845, pursued the most liberal course towards the colonial 

 fishing interests." 



PERIOD OF 1852-1854. 



The events of the year 1852 clearly indicate the adherence of the 

 United States Government to the settlement arrived at in 1845. In- 

 creased vigilance on the part of the British protective service having 

 been announced, Mr. Daniel Webster (United States Secretary of 

 State) issued a Notice in which, admitting that the term " bays," as 

 usually understood, was " applied equally to small and large tracts 

 of water thus situated," he informed United States fishermen how the 

 case then stood. In his Notice he said (British Case, App., p. 153) : - 



" It would appear that, by a strict and rigid construction of this 

 Article, fishing vessels of the United States are precluded from enter- 

 ing into the bays or harbours of the British Provinces, except for the 

 purposes of shelter, repairing damages, and obtaining wood and 

 water. A bay, as is usually understood, is an arm or recess of the sea, 

 entering from the ocean between capes or headlands; and the term is 

 applied equally to small and large tracts of water thus situated. It is 

 common to speak of Hudson's Bay, or the Bay of Biscay, although 

 they are very large tracts of water. 



" The British authorities insist that England has a right to draw 

 a line from headland to headland, and to capture all American fish- 

 ermen who may follow their pursuits inside of that line. It was 



