332 BALCH— THE AMERICAN-BRITISH [April 22, 



negotiate with the American government to that end. And on June 

 5, 1854, the Hon. Wilham L. Marcy, the American Secretary of 

 State, and Lord Elgin, special British envoy, concluded a treaty 

 relating to the fisheries, commerce and navigation. By its provisions 

 liberty was extended to American fishermen to catch fish of all 

 kinds, " except shellfish," in British or Canadian territorial waters 

 over and above the British territorial waters in which they had the 

 right to fish by the convention of 181 S.'^^ The treaty extended a 

 similar liberty to British subjects of fishing in the American Atlantic 

 territorial waters above the thirty-sixth parallel of north latitude. 

 It provided also for reciprocal free trade between America and the 

 British North American colonies in various articles ; and prescribed 

 certain regulations for the navigation of the Saint Lawrence River, 

 Lake Michigan and such Canadian Canals as were necessary to an 

 all water way communication between the Atlantic Ocean and the 

 Great Lakes. The treaty went into effect on March 16, 1855, and, 

 according to the notice of the United States terminated March 17, 

 1866. During this period friction over the fishery rights of Ameri- 

 can fishermen reserved in British waters by the convention of 1818 

 were happily avoided. And upon the termination in 1866 of the 

 reciprocity treaty of 1854, the Canadian government, for three years, 

 granted licenses to American fishing vessels, at so much a ton, to 

 exercise the same liberties they had obtained under the treaty of 



1854. 



For the fishing season of 1870 the practice of granting licenses 

 to the American vessels was stopped, and the British government no- 

 tified the government of America that her Britannic Majesty's gov- 

 ernment was of the opinion that by the convention of 1818 the Amer- 

 ican government had " renounced the right of fishing, not only within 

 three miles of the colonial shores, but within three miles of a line 

 drawn across the mouth of any British bay or creek." This com- 

 munication continued : 



It is, therefore, at present the wish of Her Majesty's government neither 

 to concede nor for the present to enforce any rights which are in their nature 

 open to any serious question. Even before the conclusion of the reciprocity 



^* " Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of 

 America and other Powers since July 4, 1776," Washington, 1889, p. 449. 



