NORTH AMERICA. No. 3. (1871.) INSTRUCTIONS ΤΟ HER MAJESTY'S HIGH COMMISSIONERS, AND PROTOCOLS OF CONFERENCES HELD AT WASHINGTON BETWEEN FEBRUARY 27 AND MAY 6, 1871. 1. Earl Granville to Her Majesty's high commissioners, February 9, 1871 2. Earl Granville to Her Majesty's high commissioners, February 9, 1871 3. Earl Granville to Her Majesty's high commissioners, February 9, 1871 4. Protocols of conferences between the high commissioners on the part of Great Britain and the high commissioners on the part of the United States.... 5 5 950 [1] * INSTRUCTIONS TO HER MAJESTY'S HIGH COMMISSIONERS, AND PROTOCOLS OF CONFERENCES HELD AT WASHINGTON BETWEEN FEBRUARY 27 AND MAY 6, 1871. No. 1. Earl Granville to Her Majesty's High Commissioners. FOREIGN OFFICE, February 9, 1871. MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN: The Queen having been graciously pleased to appoint you to be Her Majesty's high commissioners to proceed to Washington for the purpose of discussing in a friendly spirit with commissioners to be appointed by the Government of the United States the various questions on which differences have arisen between Great Britain and that country, and of treating for an agreement as to the mode of their amicable settlement, I inclose the necessary full powers, and have the honor to convey to you the following instructions for your guidance. It is the earnest desire of Her Majesty's government that the impor tant negotiation with which you are intrusted should be conducted in a mutually conciliatory disposition and with unreserved frankness in your communications with the high commissioners or members of the Government of the United States with whom you may be placed in communication, and they believe that this object cannot be better attained than by leaving you full discretion as to the manner in which the subjects which may engage your attention should be discussed. The principal subjects will probably be: 1. The fisheries. 2. The free navigation of the river St. Lawrence and privilege of passage through the Canadian canals. 3. The transit of goods through Maine, and lumber-trade down the river St. John. 4. The Manitoba boundary. 5. The claims on account of the Alabama, Shenandoah, and certain other cruisers of the so-styled Confederate States. 6. The San Juan water boundary. 7. The claims of British subjects arising out of the civil war. 8. The claims of the people of Canada on account of the Fenian raids. 9. The revision of the rules of maritime neutrality. Copies of all the correspondence which have been presented to Parliament respecting these questions will be forwarded for your use. 1. THE FISHERIES. On the termination of the reciprocity treaty of the 5th of June, 1854, by the United States Government, the discussions respecting the rights of American fishermen under Article I of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818, which had been set at rest by the reciprocity treaty, were revived, and, although temporary measures were taken to avoid H. Ex. 282, vol. iii-60 |