The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-12-07
Ing, grounds, and any vessel of the United
States which shall contravene these regula-
tions may be seized; condemned, land con-

tions may be seized; condemned, and con-
fscated, with her cargo"
This proposition, which Is identical With
the construction now put upon the Ian
guage Of the convention. was emphatically
rejected by the American commissioners,
and thereupon was abandoned by the Bli-
tlsh 'plenipotentfaries, and article 1, as it
stands in the convention, was substituted.
; IL, however, it be said that this claim is
founded on Provincial or Colonial statutes,
and not upon the Convention, this Govern
ment cannot but regard them as unfriendly,
and In contravention of the spirit ii not of
the letter of the treaty, for the faithful exc.
cution of which the Imperial Government is
alone responsible. 49,. 49,. rz -
Anticipating that m attempt may posi-
bly, be made by the Canadian authorities in
the coming season to repeat their unneigh-
horly acts towards our fishermen, recon-
mend you to confer upon the Executive the
power to suspend by proclamation the ope-
ration Of the laws authorizing the transit of
goods, wares, and merchandise in bond
across the territory of the United States to
Canada; and further, should such an ex-
treme measure become necessary, to sus-
pend the operation of any laws whereby
vessels of the Dominion of Canada are per-
mitted to enter the waters Of the United
States. A like unfriendly disposition has
been manifested on the part Of Canada in
the maintenance Of claim Of rigid to eX-
clude the citizens of the United States
from the navigation Of the st. Lawrence.
This river constitutes natural outlet to the
ocean for, eight States, with an aggregate
population Of about II, ,600, 900 inhabitants,
and with an aggregate tonnage of 661, 1867
tons upon the waters which discharge
into it.
The foreign commerce of our ports on
these waters is open TO British competition,
and the major part of it is done in British
bottoms. If the American seamen be ex-
cluded from this natural avenue to the
ocean the monopoly of the direct commerce
of the Lake ports with the Atlantic would
be in foreign hands, their vessels on trans-
Atlantic voyages having an access to our
lake ports which would be denied to Amer
ican vessels on similar voyages. TO state
such a proposition is to refute its justice.
During the Administration of MIR. John
Quincy Adams, Mr.. Clay unanswerably de-
monstrated the natural right Of the citizens
Of the United States to the navigation OF
this river, claiming that the act of the Con-
gTess of Vienna in opening the Rhine and
other rivers to all nations showed the Iudg-
ment Of European jllrists and statesmen
to be. that the inhabitants of country
through which a navigable river passes
have natural right to enjoy the navigation
Of that river to and into the sen, even
though passing through the territories
of another Power. This right does not
exclude the coequal right Of the sovereign
possessing the territory through which the
river debouches into the sea to make such
regulations relative to the police of the
navigation as may be reasonably necessary,
hf1f hnc rnC 1lofio oh l. g.
liberal spirit Of comfy, and should not inn
pose needless burdens upon the commerce
which has the right of transit. 1t has been
found, i'll practice, more advantageous to
arrange these regulations by mutual agree
ment. The United States are ready to make
any reasonable arrangement as to the police
of the st. Lawrence which may be sug-
gested by Great Britain. If the claim made
by Mr.. Clay was just when the population
of the States bordering on the shores Of the
lakes was only three million four hundred
thousand, it now derives greater force and
equity from the increased population,
wealth, production, and tonnage, of the
States on the Canadian frontier.
Since Mr.. Clay advanced his argument in
behalf of our rights, the principle for which
he contended has been frequently, and By
various nations, recognized by law or by
treaty, and has been extended to several
other great rivers. By the treaty concluded
free from the point where it is first naylga-
BILE into the sea. -
By the Convention between Spain and
Portugal, concluded in 1885, the navigation
of the Douro throughout its whole extent
was made free for the subjects of both
crowns. In 1853 the Argentine Confedera-
ton, by treaty, threw open the free naViga-
ton of the Parana and Uruguay rivers to
the merchant vessels of all nations. In 1856
the Crimean war was closed by Il treaty
which provided for the free navigation Of
the river Danube.
+ In 1858 Bolivia, by treaty, declared that
it regarded the rivers Amazon and La
Platte, in accordance with fixed principles
of national law, as highways or channels
opened ynature for the commerce Of all
nations. In 1859 the Paraguay was made
tree by treaty, and in December, 1866, the
Emperor Of Brazil, by imperial decree, de-
clared the Amazon to be open to the frontier
of Brazil to the merchant ships ofall nations.
The greatest living British authority on
this subject, while asserting the abstract
right of the British claim, says " 1t seems
difficult to deny that Great Britain may
ground her refusal upon strict law, but it is
equally difficult to deny-frst, that in so
doing she exercises harshly an extreme
and hard law; secondly, that her conduct
with respect to the navigation of the ST.
Lawrence is in glaring and discreditable
Inconsistency with her conduct with re-
spect to the navigation of the Mississippi.
On the ground that she possessed small
domain in which The Mississippi took It's
rise, she insisted on the right TO navigate
the entire volume of its waters, on the
ground that she possesses both banks OF the
St.. Lawrence where it disembogues itself
into the sen, she denies to the United States
the right Of navigation through about one
half of the waters of Lakes Ontario, Erie,
Huron, and Superior. and the whole Of
Lake Michigan, through which the river
flows, are the property Of the United States.
The ratifcations of the naturalization con-
Rvention between Great Britain and the
United States have also been exchanged
during the recess, and thus long-standlne
dispute between the two Governments has
been settled in accordance with the princl-
pies always contended for by the United
States.
& The whole nation is interested in secur-
ing cheap transportation from the agricul-
tural States of the West to the Atlantic
seaboard. TO the citizens OF those Stateslt
secures greater return for their labor; to
the inhabitants of the seabOard it affords
cheaper food to the nation an increase to
the animal surplus of wealth. 1T is hoped
that the Government of Great Britain will
see the justice Of abandoning the narrow
and inconsistent claim to which her Cana
dian provinces have urged her adherence.
Our depressed commerce is a subject to
which called your special attention at the
last session, and suggested that we will, In
the future, have to look more to the coun.
tries south of us and to China and Japan for
its revival. Our representatives to all these
Governments have exerted their intiu-
ence to encourage trade between the