The New York herald., 1871-01-03

The Fisheries and the -. Lawrence DIM
culties-Hcrald Comnssioncrs' Reports.
The pointed and very suggestive remarks Of
the President in his late annual Message to
Congress, touching ''tbe unfriendly manifesto
TONS Of her Britannia Majesty's provincials
of the New Dominion towards our people In
the Northeastern fisheries and In the naviga-
tion Of the st. Lawrence, have brought these
matters prominently into the foreground OF
our little unsettled balances against England.
It Is little curious, too, that while at London
the complaints of General Grant In the pre-
misses have been received respectfully and
with promises of careful consideration, her
Majesty's provincisls at Ottawa have nothing
to express but the establishment Of their in
jured innocents ct these charges Of General
Grant. To get at the facts in this
business we recently detailed from this
office special commissioner to Ottawa,
the capital of the New Dominion, and
another to Gloucester, Mass, the head
quarters of our Yankee fishermen, and in the
reports from these special ambassadors, which
we publish in this paper, we have the case on
both sides, at least In regard to the fisheries.
The statesmen at Ottawa, in answer to the
complaints of General Grant, put in not only
general denial, but considerable mass of
evidence and much special pleading to show
that our Canadian friends in every way,
officially and unoficially, have done all that
could be asked of them as neighbors and much
more than is required by the letter of their
treaty obligations, both in regard to privileges
allowed in their fisheries and in the navigation
Of the st. Lawrence. Those innocent Cana
astonishment at the language used by the
President of the United States concerning us
and the charges made against u.s. They say
they have been assailed without cause, fact
or reason;" that they are 'sfree from all offence
In every particular" They show how they
have stretched the fishery treaty stipulations,
not against, but in favor of the Americans;
how the Americans, in putting an end to the
late Reciprocity Treaty, killed good goose
which laid them many golden eggs; how, in
giving no notice any longer to American fish
srmen of the penalties attached to trespasses
WNulu tuo tulcC AutclulOtcu nlAcb IIOlu tuc
shore, the Dominion authorities are still faith
ful to the law, and that, In short, the fishery
complaints of General Grant are the CON-
plants Of the designing wolf against the iuno-
cent lamb.
Nor have the Canadians the remotest con-
ception Of what General Grant is driving at
when he says that "a like unfriendly disposi-
ton has been manifested on the part of Canada
in the maintenance Of claim Of right to ex-
clude the citizens of the United States from the
navigation of the st. Lawrence" What if
there are eight Of the United States, with
1900, 900 people, upon the waters whose
common outlet is that great river? Give them
the absolute right of way, and how are the
Americans going to navigate the Falls of niagara
and the St. Lawrence rapids 1t can't be done.
The Canadians have excavated those lateral
canals at cost Of $l7, 900, 900, by which alone
the traffic Of the great lakes can get down the
| st. Lawrence to the sea and in those canals.
we ore assured, the Americans have had,
| still have and will continue to have, the
same privileges as the Canadians What more
| would they have? Finally, the Canadians are
in no particular hurry for annexation. They
arc getting on very well as they are. They
can do without us, i we can Dc without them.
They are not crippled with 'Erie rings and un-
| chaste courts Of Justice While e.eatness
| attracts them. l. practical working of our in
| stltutions rspels them and they are mot to
be dragooned into separation, or independence
| or annexation
Such is the summing up Of the case for the
Dominion as submitted to the HERALD commits
sioner at Ottawa. The case as made out by
the American fishermen and given to the
HERALD commissioner at Gloucester is diffe-
rent story. Those fishermen are satisfied that
the Canadians are making all this fuss in order
to get back their advantages in trade under
the late Reciprocity Treaty. But, whatever
their object, their outrages upon American
fishermen are intolerable, and General Grant
and General Schenck ''are all right" Here
we have the remonstrance of the Gloucester
| Board of Trade, too, endorsing General Grant
| and General Butler; and the details of the
| seizure Of the American fishing vessel White
| Fawn of the ''outrage at Pirate Cove" and
! of another against certain vessels driven
ashore from Halifax in a gale and the affair
Ia which Gloucester feet was driven from
| Prince Edward Island; and the case of another
| fleet hustled out of Port Mulgrave, and various
other specifications given, go far to support the
fishermen Of Gloucester, General Butler and
the complaints of the Presidents Message. We
have also in this Gloucester statement
satisfactory explanation of the origin, and
the why and the wherefore of General But
ler's proposed non-intercourse act, and we see
that on the Yankee fshermen's side of the
question there is to be no more trifling Those