CORRESPONDENCE 4.35 



and further prohibited the use of seines at any time for the purpose of barring herrings. 

 These regulations, which were in force at the date of the Treaty of Washington, were 

 not abolished, but confirmed by the subsequent Statutes, and are binding under the 

 Tresfty upon the citizens of the United States in common with British subjects. 



The United States' fishermen, therefore, in landing for the 'purpose of fishing at 

 Tickle Beach, in using a seine at a prohibited time, and in barring herrings with seines 

 from the shore, exceeded their Treaty privileges and were engaged in unlawful acts. 



Her Majesty's Government have no wish to insist on any illiberal construction of the 

 language of the Treaty, and would not consider it necessary to make any formal com- 

 plaint on the subject of a casual infringement of the letter of its stipulations which did 

 not involve any substantial detriment to British interests, and to the fishery in general. 



An excess on the part of the United States' fishermen of the precise limits of the 

 rights secured to them might proceed as much from ignorance as from wilfulness; 

 but the present claim for compensation is based on losses resulting from a collision 

 which was the direct consequence of such excess, and Her Majesty's Government 

 feel bound to point to the fact that the United States' fishermen were the first and 

 real cause of the mischief by overstepping the limits of the privileges secured to them, 

 in a manner gravely prejudicial to the rights of other fishermen. 



For the reasons above stated Her Majesty's Government are of opinion that, 

 under the circumstances of the case as at present within their knowledge, the claim 

 advanced by the United States' fishermen for compensation on account of the losses 

 stated to have been sustained by them on the occasion in question is one which should 

 not be entertained. 



Mr. Evarts will not require to be assured that Her Majesty's Government, while 

 unable to admit the contention of the United States' Government on the present occa- 

 sion, are fully sensible of the evils arising from any difference of opinion between the 

 two Governments in regard to the fishery rights of their respective subjects. They 

 have always admitted the incompetence of the Colonial or the Imperial Legislature 

 to limit by subsequent legislation the advantages secured by Treaty to the subjects 

 of another Power. If it should be the opinion of the Government of the United States 

 that any Act of the Colonial Legislature subsequent in date to the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton has trenched upon the rights enjoyed by the citizens of the United States in virtue 

 of that instrument, Her Majesty's Government will consider any communication 

 addressed to them in that view with a cordial and anxious desire to remove all just 

 grounds of complaint. j ^^ ^^^ 



(Signed) Salisbury 



NOTE FROM EARL GRANVILLE, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER, TO MR. 

 LOWELL, AMERICAN MINISTER AT LONDON, OCTOBER 27, 1880 > 



Foreign Office, October 27, 1880 

 Sir, Her Majesty's Government have carefully considered the correspondence 

 which has taken place between their predecessors and the Government of the United 

 States respecting the disturbance which occurred at Fortune Bay on the 6th January, 

 1878, and they have approached this subject with the most earnest desire to arrive 

 at an amicable solution of the differences which have unfortunately arisen between 

 the two Governments on the construction of the provisions of the Treaties which regu- 

 late the rights of United States' fishermen on the coast of Newfoundland. 

 1 Appendix, British Case, p. 289; Appendix, U. S. Case, p. 712. 



