112 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



marine miles of the coast of such littoral seas, be they bays, gulfs, or 

 other inlets, unless the coast bordering the same be all under her 

 sovereignty, and unless the strait formed by the headlands at their 

 entrance exceeds six miles in length. The question is here entirely 

 solved and put at rest. It only remains to be ascertained how distant 

 be the headlands at the entrance of the Bays of Fundy, of Chaleurs. 

 and elsewhere. Are they more widely apart than six miles? Then 

 the bays are as open and free as the main ocean itself. Are they 

 within the line or the six miles? Then they are private bays, bays 

 shut up from the commerce of the rest of mankind, at the will of the 

 riparious Sovereign, provided he be the Lord of the whole coast sur- 

 rounding them, and not otherwise. Now, we know that is not the 

 case with the bays just named. Both have an entrance too wide to be 

 claimed as private seas ; and independent of this, the Bay of Fundy 

 is bounded in part by the Staie of Maine, a circumstance which alone 

 would preclude all pretensions on the part of England to make it 

 hers. I am done with this part of my subject." 



This contention was entirely repudiated by Senator Seward, who 

 was believed to have expressed the views of the Government at that 

 time. He said (United States Case, App., p. 1257; British Case, 

 App., .p. 187) :- 



" Now, Sir, this argument seems to me to prove too much. I think 

 it would divest the United States of the harbour of Boston, all the 

 land around which belongs to Massachusetts or the United States, 

 while the mouth of the bay is six miles wide. It would surrender our 

 dominion over Long Island Sound a dominion which I think the 

 State of New York and the United States would not willingly give 

 up. It would surrender Delaware Bay; it would surrender, I think, 

 Albemarle Sound, and the Chesapeake Bay; and I believe it would 

 surrender the Bay of Monterey, and perhaps the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco, on the Pacific Coast." 



127 The attacks in, and outside of, Congress upon the United 

 States Government had an unsettling effect, and an effort to 

 get better terms from Great Britain was determined upon. (British 

 Case, App., pp. 197, 201, 202.) The American Minister at London 

 was consequently directed in 1853 to propose to the British Govern- 

 ment to abstain from seizures of United States vessels when beyond 

 three miles from shore. The British Foreign Secretary declined to 

 agree, and in 1853 the naval instructions were continued in the same 

 form as had been in force during the preceding years, namely (Brit- 

 ish Case, App., p. 202; United States Case, App., p. 522) : 



"to drive away, not to actually seize, beyond three miles from the 

 shore, except in the last resort, in case of determined and con- 

 tumacious encroachment in what are clearly bays of our provinces." 



These orders appear to have been understood, and submitted to, by 

 the United States fishermen; tfnd the influence upon them of the 

 United States naval officers, Commodores Perry and Shubrick made it 

 unnecessary to treat any of them as contumacious. 



