England and the United States seem destined, like some testy
relations, albeit they love each other passing well, to be always snapping and growling at each other. An English squadron has been sent to protect our Colonial fishermen in the Bay of Fundy against encroachments by American fishermen; and this proceed- ing has given rise to a tart, onesided discussion, in the Senate at Washington. Attempts have been made both in this country and in America to mix up the altercation with the question of Free- trade and Protection, with which it-has no connexion. The ques- tion at issue is simply whether American citizens have or have not—by the law of nations, or under treaty stipulations—a right to fish within a certain distance of the shores of pro- vinces belonging to Great Britain. The truth appears to be, that the fishermen of the United States have been gradually and systematically encroaching; that the British colonists, too weak to offer effective resistance, and ill-supported by the Imperial Govern- ment, which knew little and cared less about the matter, have been obliged to give way before their encroachments ; and that the Derby Ministry, ambitions of doing something, have been rather rash and harsh in their adoption of measures to redress the wrong. There will of course be no war; it is not equally certain that the rights of the Anglo-American colonists will not be sacrificed.
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