CIRCULARS 



SECRETARY OF STATE WEBSTER'S STATEMENT, JULY 6, 18521 



The Ameeican Fisheries 



[From The Boston Courier of Monday] 



Department op State, Washington, July 6th, 1852 

 Information of an oflBcial character has been received at this Department to the 

 following effect: 



"The late Ministry of England was opposed to the granting of bounties on principle, 

 and in consequence it steadily refused to give the necessary assent to Acts of the 

 Colonial Legislatures granting bounties to the fisheries. The colonies complained 

 severally, of this interference with their local affairs; and they further complained, 

 that the Government declined to enforce the provisions of the Fishery Convention 

 of 1818, and thereby permitted American fishermen to encroach upon the best fishing 

 grounds, from which, under the legal construction of the treaty, they ought to be 

 excluded. 



" With the recent change of Ministry in England, has occurred an entire change 

 of policy. The present Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir John Packington, has 

 addressed a circular letter to the Governors of the several North American Colonies, 

 an extract from which is as follows: 



"Downing Street, May 26, 1852 

 Among the many pressing subjects which have engaged the attention of Her 

 Majesty's Ministers, since their assumption of ofiSce, few have been more important 

 in their estimation than the questions relating to the protection solicited for the 

 fisheries on the coasts of British North America. 



Her Majesty's Government have taken into their serious consideration the 

 representations upon this subject contained in your despatches noted in the margin, 

 and have not failed to observe, that whilst active measures have been taken by certain 

 colonies for the purpose of encouraging their fisheries, and of repelling the intrusion 

 of foreign vessels, it has been a subject of complaint that impediments should have 

 been offered by the policy of the Imperial Government to the enactment of bounties, 

 considered by the local Legislatures essential for the protection of this trade. Her 

 Majesty's Ministers are desirous of removing all grounds of complaint on the part 

 of the colonies, in consequence of the encroachments of the fishing vessels of the 

 United States upon those waters from which they are excluded by the terms of the 

 Convention of 1818, and they therefore intend to despatch, as soon as possible, a 

 small naval force of steamers or other small vessels, to enforce the observance of 

 that Convention. 



This announcement is accompanied by the following, as to the bounties: — 

 With regard to the question of promoting the fisheries of the British Colonies by 

 the means of bounties, Her Majesty's Government, although desirous not to sanc- 

 tion any unnecessary deviation from that policy, which regulates the commerce of 

 'Appendix, U. S. Case, p. 507; Appendix, British Case, pp. 152-153. 

 473 



