12 The Fishery Question : 



themselves to the waters a leafjue distant from those indents 

 measun^l from headland to headland. The British Govern- 

 ment, in their desire to afford every facility to the United 

 States consistent with their sovereii^n rights and the interests of 

 the people of British North America, have since 1815 thought 

 it expedient to relax, in the case of the Bay of Fundy, the appli- 

 cation of the rule to which they have generally adhered. They 

 have permitted American fishermen to pursue their calling it) 

 any part of the bay, provided they should not approach, except 

 in cases specified by the treaty of 1S18, within three miles of 

 the entrance of any bay on the coast of Nova Scotia or New 

 Brunswick. While maintaining, as a matter of strict construc- 

 tion, that this large bay is rightfully claimed by Great Britain as 

 a body of water within the meaning of the Convention of 1818, 

 they have considered that in one respect this inlet could be 

 treated exceptionally, inasmuch as there was some plausibility in 

 the reasonini]; of the United States, that the headlands were not 

 only sixty miles apart, but one of them was not British ; and 

 that, as pointed out by Mr. Everett to Lord Aberdeen in 1844, 

 " Owing to the peculiar configuration of the coasts of this arm of 

 the sea there is a succession of bays indenting the shores both of 

 ISiova Scotia and New Brunswick, within any distance not less 

 tha!i three miles, from which American fishermen were neces- 

 sarily excluded by holding the whole body of water to be in the 

 British territorial limits." The same argument could not bo 

 used in the case of the Bay of Chaleurs or other important 

 indents of the coasts, and under these circumstances, with a view 

 of preventing international disputes in waters so close to the 

 United States territory, the British Government have never 

 pressed their undoubted legal right to exclude American fisher- 

 men from the bay in question. 



The Imperial authorities have on many occasions strictly 

 maintained the rights they possess under the law of nations. 

 From 1818 to 1854 the British cruisers detailed by the Imperial 

 and Colonial Governments for the protection of their fisheries 

 captured and confiscated several American vessels that were 

 found ranging at points varying from quite near the shore to a 

 distance of upwards of ten miles from land, on the ground that 

 they were within the headlands of bays. In 185 1<, after con- 

 siderable negotiation for years, the two Governments arranged a 

 Reciprocity Treaty which temporarily settled the increasitjg 

 difficulties on the question. By this treaty the United States 

 obtained free access to the fishing-grounds on tiie east coast of 

 British North America, and certain natural products of these 

 two countries, like fish, coal, fltnu^ meal, lumber, and salt, were 

 allowed to enter into Ctach, free of duty. This arrangement was 



