ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 263 



construction, of the meaning of the treaty, not of granting a favor 

 nor of refraining from enforcing the treaty in accordance with its 

 construction, but it relates to a determination upon what the treaty 

 means — ■ 



"H.M. Govt therefore henceforward propose to regard as bays, in the 

 sense of the treaty, only those inlets of the sea which measure from headland 

 to headland at their entrance the double of the distance of 3 miles, within 

 which it will still be prohibited to the fishing vessels of the United States 

 to approach the coast for the purpose of fishing. I transmit to your Lord- 

 ship herewith the copy of a letter, together with its enclosures, which I have 

 received from the Foreign Office upon this subject, from which you wiU learn 

 the general views entertained by H.M. Govt as to the expediency of extend- 

 ing to the whole of the coasts of the British possessions in N. America, the 

 same liberality with respect to U. States fishing boats as H.M. Govt have 

 recently thought fit to apply to the Bay of Fundy; and I have to request 

 that your Lordship would inform me whether you have any objections to 

 offer, on provincial or other grounds, to the proposed relaxation of the con- 

 struction of the Treaty of 1818 between this country and the U. States. 



"I have, etc. 



"Stanley" 



The complaints referred to by the Minister of the United States 

 on account of the capture of vessels belonging to fishermen of the 

 United States by the provincial cruisers of Nova Scotia or New 

 Brunswick are doubtless the complaints relating to the capture 

 of the "Washington" and the "Argus," which were the only 

 vessels ever captured outside of the 3-mile Hmit, and which were 

 taken by provincial cruisers, and not by the vessels of Great 

 Britain. 



This letter shows that, having brought sharply before it the 

 assertion of Nova Scotia that the treaty covered by its renuncia- 

 tion clause the great bodies of water geographically known as bays, 

 and being faced with the demand of the United States for reparation 

 for the acts which the United States deemed to be unwarranted 

 and injurious, of seizing the "Argus" and the "Washington," the 

 British Government re-examined the subject; plainly they then 

 discovered, or had already discovered, the error in the former opinion 

 of the law officers of the Crown, who had based an expression of 

 opinion that the renunciation clause of the treaty did cover these 

 "bays" upon the supposed use of the word "headlands" in the 



