302 



iiable to any action, indictment, or otber suit or prosecution, on account 

 of such seizure ; and if any action, indictment, or other suit or prosecu^ 

 tion,' shall be brought to trial against any person on account of such 

 seizure, wherein a verdict shall be given against the defendant, the 

 plaintiff, besides the thing seized, or the value thereof, shall be entitled 

 to nn more than twopence damages, nor to any costs of suit, nor shall 

 the defendant in such prosecution be fined more than one shilling." 

 No American citizen can speak of this infamous law with calmness. 

 Well did Mr. Forsyth* say that some of its provisions were "violations 

 of weU-eslablished principles of the common law orEngland and of 

 the principles of all just powers and all civilized nations, and seemed 

 to be expressly designed to enable her Majesty's authorities, with 

 perfect impunity, to seize and confiscate American vessels, and to em- 

 bezzle,' almost indiscrinainately, the property of our citizens employed 

 in the fisheries on the coasts of the British possessions." Well, too,, 

 did Mr. Evereltt stigmatize it as possessing "none of the qualities of 

 the law of civilized States but its forms;" and Mr. Davis, | as being "a 

 law of a shameful character," and "evidently designed to legalize 

 marauding upon an industrious, enterprising class of men. who have no 

 means to contend with such sharp and unwarrantable weapons of war- 

 fare." 



These are strong expressions ; but they were uttered by gentlemen 

 who measure their words, and are entirely true. Nay, more; for T 

 shall presume to add that the politicians of Nova Scotia remind us of 

 the theoiy of Hobbes, who maintained that the natural state of man is 

 a. state of war against all ; since these very loycil gentlemen are in con- 

 tinual dispute with one another, with the government of the mother 

 country, with British subjects in other colonies, and with the people of 

 "the United States. In fact, these persons, in their various contests, 

 •have succeeded in making Nova Scotia the Barbary power of this hem- 

 isphere. It was contended in England, as late as the opening of the 

 present century, that the capture and sale of an English ship by Al- 

 eerines was a piratical seizure. I am disposed to regard the proceed- 

 ings against American fishing vessels, under the authority derived from 

 the act of 1836, as open to the same objection. When, in 1824, young 

 Howard and his associates rescued the Ruby and the Reindeer from 

 the possession of the captors, the British government — as we have seen — 

 made formal and repeated demands for reparation ; but it may be diffi- 

 cult to show what other or greater right to interpret the convention of 

 1818 can possibly belong to a British colony than was exercised by 

 this party of American youth. If Nova Scotia may lawfully interfere 

 with, and legislate upon, a matter which is entirely national, so may 

 Massachusetts and Maine. That colony is but a dependency of tb6 

 British crown; the colonial armed cutters are mere corsairs, and their 

 seizures of our property are acts of piracy. The sea-robbers hold our 

 vessels at their mercy. The act of 183.6 places them above respon- 

 sibility, and screens them from punishment. The term "preparing to 



, •Despatch, to Mr. Stevenson, February 20, 1841. • 



t Letter to Lord Aberdeen, April 8, 1845. 

 i Letter of Hon. John Davis to the fishermen of Hassachusetts, September 1, 1353. 



