questions between the two countries, including the Behring Sea seal fisheries, the Alaska boundary line, and the Atlantic fisheries, were to be discussed and, if possible, disposed of. I advised the Imperial Government to select Sir John Macdonald as fellowplenipotentiary to act with the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain. Sir John would not hear of this proposal, and insisted that I should go, so I was appointed one of the joint British plenipotentiaries to negotiate the proposed treaty. My other colleague was Sir Lionel Sackville West, British Minister in Washington. My first intimation that I was likely to be sent as one of the British Commissioners was conveyed to me in the following letter from Mr. Chamberlain : Highbury, Moor Green, Birmingham, Sept. 4, 1887. DEAR SIR CHARLES TUPPER,-I hear with great pleasure that there is some chance of your being associated with the work of the new Fishery Commission. In any case, I should be very glad of the opportunity of talking the subject over with you, as I know you have given special attention to it. Is there any hope that you could pay me a visit here any time this month? If you could spare the time to run down for any Saturday and Sunday you would give me very great pleasure, and we could quietly discuss the policy to be adopted.-Believe me, yours very truly, J. CHAMBERLAIN. The Hon. Mr. Bayard, who afterwards served as American Ambassador at the Court of St. James, Mr. (now Judge) Putnam, of Massachusetts, and Professor Angell, of Michigan, represented the United States. Our instructions may be gathered from the following letters: Colonial Office, Downing Street, DEAR SIR CHARLES TUPPER,-Sir H. Holland wishes you to know that H.M. Government and the U.S. Government have nearly agreed upon the terms of reference on the Fishery Commission which run at present. To consider and adjust all questions respecting rights of fishery in the seas adjacent to British North America and Newfoundland which are in dispute between the two Governments, and any other questions which may arise in the course of the negotiations and which they may be authorised by their respective Governments to consider and adjust. I am now asking F.O. concurrence to telegraph to Lord Lansdowne to the above purport.-Yours, (Signed) JOHN Bramston. etc. 9 Victoria Chambers, London, S.W., September 22, 1887. DEAR MR. BRAMSTON,-I received last night your confidential note containing the memorandum on the proposed terms of reference to the Fishery Commission. I cannot but think that it would be very desirable that they should be so framed as to embrace the question of the seal fisheries in Behring's Sea as well as the fisheries on the Atlantic coast. As the basis of this Commission is to be found in Mr. Bayard's letter to me of the 31st May, I do not see how the United States can object to the inclusion of the question under controversy on the Pacific as well as on the Atlantic Coast. Mr. Bayard proposed that there should be "terms of arrangement for a modus vivendi to meet present emergencies, and also a permanent plan to avoid all future disputes." He also said, "I am prepared therefore to meet the authorised agents of Great Britain at this capital at the earliest possible day and enter upon negotiations for a settlement of all differences." He also said: "I am confident we both seek to attain a just and permanent settlement, and there is but one way to procure it, and that is by a straightforward treatment on a liberal and statesmanlike plan of the entire commercial relations of the two countries." In these circumstances I do not see how the United States can refuse to embrace a consideration of the question in which we complain of the seizure of our vessels in the Behring Sea, as well as a consideration of questions connected with the fisheries on the Atlantic coast. It appears to me to be very desirable that, as stated by Mr. Bayard, the reference should be wide enough to cover all the questions of controversy between the United States and Canada. As suggested by you, I have in the foregoing reduced to writing the substance of my remarks in the interview with which you favoured me this morning.-Believe me, etc. (Signed) CHARLES TUPPER. Foreign Office, October, 1887. Instructions to Her Majesty's Plenipotentiaries at the Fishery Conference. Treaty No. 1. GENTLEMEN,-The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint you to be Her Majesty's plenipotentiaries to consider and adjust all or any questions relating to the rights of fishery in the seas adjacent to British North America and Newfoundland which are in dispute between the Government of Her Britannic Majesty and that of the U.S.A., and any other question which may arise and which the respective plenipotentiaries may be authorised by their Governments to consider and adjust. I transmit to you herewith Her Majesty's full power to that effect, and I have to give the following instructions for your guidance. The main question which you will be called upon to discuss arises in connection with the fisheries prosecuted by the citizens of the United States on the Atlantic shores of British North America and Newfoundland. The correspondence which has already been placed at your disposal will have made you familiar with the historical features of the case up to the conclusion of the Treaty of Washington, and it appears therefore needless at the present moment to recapitulate the various negotiations which have taken place on the subject of these fisheries previously to the year 1871. I transmit to you herewith a copy of the Treaty of Washington of the 8th May, 1871, from which you will perceive that by the Fishery Articles thereof (Articles 18 to 25, 30, 32, and 33) the Canadian and Newfoundland inshore fisheries on the Atlantic coast and those of the United States, north of the 39th Parallel of north latitude, were thrown reciprocally open, and fish and fish oil were reciprocally admitted duty free. In accordance with the terms of these Articles the difference in value between the concessions therein made by Great Britain to the United States was assessed by the Halifax Commission at the sum of $5,500,000 for a period of twelve years, the obligatory term for the duration of these Articles. At the expiration of the stipulated period the United States' Government gave notice of the termination of the Fishery Articles, which consequently ceased to have effect on the 1st of July, 1885; but the Canadian Government being loath to subject the American fishermen to the hardship of a change in the midst of a fishing season, consented to allow them gratuitously to continue to fish inshore and to obtain supplies without reference to any restrictions contained in the Convention of 1818 till the end of the year 1885, on the understanding that a Mixed Commission should be appointed to settle the Fisheries Question and to negotiate for the development and extension of the trade between the United States and British North America. The proposed Commission not having been constituted, and no settlement having consequently been arrived at, the Convention of the 20th October, 1818, came into force again at the commencement of the year 1886. Article I. of that Convention is as follows: "Whereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty claimed by the United States, |
