263 



playing a game ■whicli will not advance materially the interests they 

 have in view." 



On the 5th of July, Mr. Crampton, the successor of Sir Henry Bul- 

 wer, announced to the President, in a note addressed to the Secretary 

 of State, that be had "been directed by her Majesty's government to 

 bring to the knowledge of the government of the United States a meas- 

 ure which has been adopted by her Majesty's government to prevent a 

 repetition of the complaints which have so frequently been made of . 

 the encroachments of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States 

 and of France, upon the fishing-grounds reserved to Great Britain by 

 the convention of 1818. 



"Urgent representations having been addressed to her Majesty's gov^ 

 ernment by the governors of the British North American provinces, in 

 regard to these encroachments, whereby the colonial fisheries are most 

 Seriously prejudiced, directions have been given by the lords of her 

 Majesty's* admiralty for staitibning off" New Brunswick, Nova>Scotia, 

 Prince Edward Island, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, such a force 

 of small sailing vessels and steamers as shall be deemed sufficient to 

 prevent the infraction of the treaty. It is the command of the Queen,^ 

 that the officers employed upon this service should be especially en- 

 joined to avoid all interference with the vessels of friendly powers, ex- 

 cept where they are in the act of violating the treaty, and on all occasions 

 to avoid giving ground of complaint by ihe adoption of hai'sh or unne- 

 cessaiy proceedings, when circumstances compel their arrest or seizure." 



Mr. Webster, in a paper dated at the Department of State, on the 

 following day, and published in the Boston Courier of the 19th of July, 

 after citing various documents which refer to the pohcy of the admin- 

 istration of Lord John Russell, and to that of his successor, the Earl of 

 Derby, touching the colonial fisheries, quotes from another document, 

 that " The vessels-of-war mentioned in the above circular despatches 

 are expected to be upon the coasts of British North America during the 

 present month, (July) -when, no doubt, seizures will begin to be naade 

 of American fishing vessels, which in the autumn pursue their business 

 in indents of the coast, frorn which it is contended they are excluded 

 by the convention of 1816. 



"Meantime, and within the last ten days, an American fishing vessel 

 called the ' Coral,' belonging to Machias, in Maine, has been seized in 

 the Bay of Fundy, near Grand Menan, by the officer commanding her 

 Majesty's cutter ' Netleiy,' already arrived in that bay, for an alleged 

 infraction of the fishing convention ; and the fishing vessel has been 

 carried to the port of St. John, New Brunswick,- where proceedings 

 have been taken in the admiralty court, with a view to her condemna- 

 tion and absolute forfeiture. 



"Besides the small naval force to be sent out by the imperial gov- 

 ernment, the colonies are bestirring themselves also for the protection 

 of their fisheries. Canada has fitted out an armed vessel, to be sta- 

 tioned in the gulf; and this tessel has proceeded to the fishing-grounds, 

 having on board not only a naval commander and crew, with power to 

 seize vessels within Emits, but also a stip^diary magistrate and civil 

 police, to make prisoners of all who are found transgressing the laws of 

 Canaxia, in order to their being committed to jail, in th^t colony, for trial. 



