Ixxii INTRODUCTION 



the amended circular of June 9, 1870, Mr. Boutwell, after reciting the 

 provisions of the Convention of 1818, stated: 



"Fishermen of the United States are bound to respect the British laws and regu- 

 lations and preservation of the fisheries to the same extent to which they are appli- 

 cable to British or Canadian fishermen." ' 



American counsel confined this circular to the non-treaty waters and 

 did not see in it an admission of local regulation and control. British 

 counsel viewed it as a general warning to American fishermen and re- 

 garded it as an admission against interest and as inconsistent with the 

 American contention. 



If the American interpretation of the circular is correct, there is no 

 admission; if, on the contrary, the British interpretation is correct, the 

 circular is a serious admission. In this latter point of view the circular 

 is inconsistent with the attitude of the United States, as shown in the 

 correspondence arising out of the Fortune Bay incident, conducted by 

 the duly authorized mouthpieces of foreign affairs, Mr. Evarts, Secre- 

 tary of State, and Lord Salisbury, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 

 which will presently be discussed at length and in detail. By the Treaty 

 of May 8, 1871, the Alabama Claims were submitted to arbitration and 

 advantage was taken of these negotiations to insert a reciprocal clause 

 in the treaty, by which American citizens were to be admitted to the 

 fishing grounds renounced by the Convention of 1818 and British sub- 

 jects admitted to the American fisheries. This subject was dealt with 

 in Article XVIII, the material portions of which follow: 



"It is agreed by the High Contracting Parties that . . . the inhabitants of the 

 United States shall have in common with the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, the 

 liberty ... to take fish of every kind, except shell-fish (for a period of ten years); 

 provided that, in so doing, they do not interfere with the rights of private property, or 

 with British fishermen, in the peaceable use of any part of the said coasts in their 

 occupancy for the same purpose." 



It was asserted by the British but not admitted by the American 

 negotiators that the British were more profitable than the Ameri- 

 can waters (Article XXII), and an arbitration was provided for to 

 determine "the amount of any compensation which . . . ought to be 

 paid by the Government of the United States to the Government of 

 Her Britannic Majesty in return for the privileges accorded to the citi- 

 zens of the United States under Article XVIII of this Treaty." (Article 

 XXII, Treaty of 1871.) 



Article XVIII is substantially identical with the first article of the 

 Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, and the terms of both identical with the 



' Appendix, pp. 47g, 480; Appendix, British Case, p. 249. 



