338 BALCH— THE AMERICAN-BRITISH [April 22, 



crew and lowered the flag himself. The vessel was finally released under 

 orders of the customs department, being compelled to pay $8 in addition to 

 the deposit of $400 above specified. 



For this insult to the American flag, Secretary Bayard demanded 

 an apology, and December 7, 1886, the British Minister at Washing- 

 ton, under instruction from the Earl of Iddesleigh, British Secre- 

 tary of Foreign Affairs, communicated to the American government 

 a communication from the government of the Dominion of Canada 

 apologizing for the hauling down of the flag of the Marion Grimes 

 by Canadian officials.** 



Owing to this harassing of American fishermen in Canadian 

 territorial waters, under the guise that they transgressed the Can- 

 adian customs regulations, the American Congress on March 3, 1887, 

 approved an act whereby power was given to the president to retal- 

 iate upon the Canadians. 



Negotiations, with a view to arrange an amicable settlement were 

 continued by the American and the British governments.*^ Finally 

 a convention was agreed upon at Washington, February 15, 1888, 

 subject to ratification by the American Senate, the Canadian Parlia- 

 ment and the Newfoundland Legislature.*" 



This convention provided that the width of exclusively territorial 

 bays, wherein American fishermen were excluded from taking fish 

 by the Treaty of 18 18, should be extended from six miles from 

 shore to shore, according to the well-recognized and established 

 custom of International Law, to a distance of ten miles from land 

 to land. Thereby the extent of Canadian and Newfoundland terri- 

 torial waters from which American fishing vessels were barred was 

 increased. In addition, the convention restricted American fisher- 

 men from fishing in specifically named bays, such as the Bale des 

 Chaleurs in New Brunswick, and Fortune Bay in Newfoundland, 

 that varied in width from ten to twenty-one miles from shore to 



" " Foreign Relations of the United States, 1886," Washington, 1887, pp. 

 491, 492. 



"Senate Executive Documents, No. 113,50th Congress, ist Session, Wash- 

 ington, 1888, pp. 56-65, 112-119. 



"Senate Executive Documents, No. 113, soth Congress, ist Session, Wash- 

 ington, 1888, pp. 127-142. Joseph I. Doran, " Our Fishery Rights in the North 

 Atlantic," Philadelphia, 1888, pp. 54-67. 



