311 



who is a legal gentleman, and a person of great private worth, gave 

 the opinion, in the cases of the Independence and the Hart, that "the 

 evidence was insufficient to authorize their seizure ;" yet we have seen 

 that both were colifiscated. Mr. Barnes, the naval officer of Boston,* 

 in reply to the collector of that port, who desired information in relation 

 to the seizures made in 1839, states, that " while at Yarmouth I had 

 the pleasure of meeting very many highly respectable and intelligent 

 gentlemen of that town, who seemed deeply to regret that their own 

 government officers should have proceeded with so much rigor against 

 the American fishing craft, believing with the consul and the Americans 

 generally, that, in a ma.Jority of cases, the seizures had been made.for 

 causes of the most trivial character." He adds : " It is perfectly cer- 

 tain that our fishermen must have the right to resort to the shores of the 

 British provinces for shelter in bad weather, for fiiel, and for water, 

 unmolested by British armed cruisers, or this important branch of 

 American industry must be, to a very great extent, abandoned. It 

 affords but poor consolation to the fisherman, whose vessel has been 

 wantonly captured, and who finds himself and his friends on shore 

 among foreigners already sufficiently prejudiced against him, without 

 provisions and without money, to be told that the court of vice-admiralty 

 will see that justice is done him, and that, if innocent, his vessel will 

 be restored to him. The expenses of his defence and the loss of the 

 fishing season are his ruin." 



The officer who for many years made the greatest number of cap- 

 tures died in 1851. It was the opinion of Lieutenant Paine, in 1839, 

 that he was "prompted as weU by his interest as by the certainty of 

 impunity" in his course towards our countrymen. We may now pass 

 lightly over his proceedings, remarking only that, the year previous to 

 Iiis decease, he levied contributions upon some of the masters of fishing 

 vessels he met with, compelling them to give him five, ten, or twenty 

 barrels of mackerel, according to circumstances, on pain of capture 

 for refusal.t 



To avoid misapprehension, I deem it proper to observe, in conclu- 

 sion, that I have not designed to censure the admiralty court. As long 

 ago as the War Of 1812, that tribunal restored to the Academy of Arts 

 of Philadelphia a case of Italian paintings and prints captured by a 

 British vessel and sent into Halifax, on the ground that "the arts and 

 sciences were admitted to form an exception to the severe rights of 

 warfare." It has lost none of its character since. Its decisions rest 

 on the law and the testimony. Still, since integrity and learning upon 

 the bench are insufficient to insure justice without honest witnesses 

 upon the stand, American vessels have sometimes been condemned 

 wrongfiiUy. 



The discussion may end here. The political leaders of Nova Scotia 

 have succeeded in disturbing the friendly relations which for a long 

 period existed between England and the United States. "We have 



* In 1839. 



t There seema no reason to doubt this statement, which rests on the declarations of the 

 persons concerned. It is said, ftirther, that this officer dared not to dispose of the fish after 

 he had obtained them, and that they were suffered to remain in store a long time. Eepre- 

 gentations on the subject were made to Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, in March, 1852. 



