India islands, yet they were, during that period, so well provided with articles of the first necessity, that ships from these colonies were frequently unable to find a sale for their cargoes in our own islands, and were obliged to resort to foreign islands for a market. By returns collected from the merchants of this province, engaged in the West India trade, we find that the prices obtained by them for cod fish, from the year 1785, to the year 1792 inclusive, never exceeded five dollars per quintal, and sometimes fell short of half that sum. In the year 1793 we meet with a single instance of cod fish selling for six dollars; but the common price, even in that first year of the war, was not more than three and a half dollars per quintal. The cheapness, therefore, of this article clearly proves the abundance of it in the West India islands, and consequently that the allowing the Americans to import fish in American ships was not a measure of necessity. We have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, No. XIII. NEW BRUNSWICK. Address respecting the Islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. To the Honourable GABRIEL G. Luntow, Esquire, President of his Majesty's Council, and Commander in Chief of the Province of NEW BRUNSWICK, &c. &c. The joint Address of his Majesty's Council, and the House of Representatives of the Province of New Brunswick, in General Assembly. SIR, HAVING long entertained a confident hope, that the possession of Moose Island, Dudley Island, and Frederick Island, in Passamaquoddy Bay, usurped by the State of Massachusetts, would never be sanctioned by any act, or avowed acquiescence on the part of his Majesty's government; but that his Majesty's indisputable right to these islands would in due time be effectually asserted; it is with very great concern that we now find, from a passage in a letter from Mr. Merry, to your honour, stating the communications made to him by Mr. Madison, the American Secretary of State, on the subject of these islands, that the United States do actually consider their present possession as having been so sanctioned; and that they are prepared to construe his Majesty's forbearance in this behalf, as having already warranted their claim of an entire right to these islands. In the letter above referred to, Mr. Merry states, "that the Ame<rican minister observed to him, that since his Majesty's govern"ment have allowed the United States to remain in possession of "the above-mentioned islands, the waters which surround them, to "the distance to which the jurisdiction of any territory is usually "understood to extend, ought equally to be considered as American ; "and added, that although he could not properly refer, on this oc"casion, to the convention between his Majesty and the United "States, concluded in London, on the 12th of May, 1803, because "it had not been ratified, nevertheless, by that convention, the "islands in question were declared to belong to the United States; "an arrangement which would probably be confirmed whenever the "matter of the boundary line between the two territories should again be brought into discussion; the more so, because it was not "the article respecting the eastern boundary on the side of New "Brunswick which occasioned the convention to remain unra"tified." As a hope may be entertained that the convention referred to by Mr. Madison respecting these islands may not yet be ratified, we request your honour to transmit to his Majesty's ministers this our joint address, on a subject of such importance to his Majesty's government, and the rights and interests of his faithful subjects in this province. After the full discussion of the question of right to these islands, in the correspondence between his Majesty's ministers and his excellency the lieutenant-governor of this province, on former occasions, particularly his excellency's dispatch to his Grace the Duke of Portland, dated 5th August, 1799, and the letters and documents therein mentioned, it may be thought superfluous to do more than generally to refer to those papers on the present occasion. We trust, however, that the magnitude of the object will justify our attempt to bring within a small compass the result of those discussions, adding thereto some further observations which more immediately press upon our attention, and which we hope will merit the consideration of his Majesty's ministers. That part of the second article of the treaty of peace between his Majesty and the United States which respects the present question is expressed as follows: "East, by a line to be drawn along the "middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy, "to its source, &c. comprehending all islands within twenty leagues "of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between "lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid DD "boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part, and East Flo"rida on the other part, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy, " and the Atlantic Ocean, excepting such islands as now are, or " heretofore have been, within the limits of the said province of "Nova Scotia." The islands hereby granted are evidently such, and such only, as are within twenty leagues of the coast, and also lie between those parallels of latitudes by which the shores of the ceded country are limited at their. rthern and southern extremities. Hence all islands, not within those parallels, however near they may be to the shore, are clearly excluded from the grant; and of those which are within the parallels, all such as then were, or ever had been, within the limits of Nova Scotia, are also excluded. From the treaty of peace, therefore, the United States can derive no shadow of claim to the islands in question; and his Majesty's original right to them remains entire and incontestable. For, we believe, it has never been controverted, even by the American government, that these islands, always before the treaty of peace, were comprehended within the limits, and constituted a part of the province of Nova Scotia, which it was the obvious intention of the treaty to reserve to his Majesty, by its utmost limits; a reference to the original boundaries of the province in Sir William Alexander's patent, and to the description of the boundaries in all the commissions to his Majesty's governors of the province, and the actual grant of two of these islands to Francis Bernard, and others, by letters patent under the seal of the province of Nova Scotia, bearing date the 30th October, 1765, place this fact beyond all dispute. These islands, at the time when the province of New Brunswick was erected in the year 1784, were all possessed and inhabited by his Majesty's subjects; they were, by an act of the General Assembly of the province, passed in January, 1786, for the purpose of dividing the several countries into towns and parishes, expressly made a part of the parish of West Isles, in the county of Charlotte; and their inhabitants yielded obedience to the laws of the province, in attending to the several duties which they were called upon to perform by the courts and magistrates established and appointed in that county; and we cannot but consider it as a matter of serious regret, that the possession of these islands, shortly afterwards usurped by the State of Massachusetts, and hitherto continued, has given rise to a claim of territorial right, on the part of that State, founded merely upon that possession. We now beg leave briefly to hint at some of the mischiefs and inconveniences which have resulted from this continued usurpation. Very large quantities of lumber, furnished from the neighbouring parts of the province, are purchased by the American subjects, and carried to these islands for exportation; which lumber is paid for with prohibited articles from the United States; and they in the same manner engross almost the whole of the produce of the fisheries among these islands, which is also paid for in the same manner; and thus we sustain a double injury. The West India islands are, in a great measure, precluded from receiving their supplies of fish and lumber in British bottoms; and large quantities of contraband goods are introduced into this province, to the great injury of the commercial interests of Great Britain, as well as of the fair mershants and traders residing here. Their situation enables the inhabitants of these islands to engross a very great proportion of the plaster trade from this and the neighbouring province of Nova Scotia, which is now become of great magnitude and extent, whereby his Majesty's subjects are deprived of a very highly valuable carrying trade in this article. These islands are become places of refuge for insolvent debtors, and disorderly persons of every description, particularly of deserters from his Majesty's service: all attempts to recover whom are insolently resisted. By the possession of these islands, great facility is given to the conveyance, in small vessels, of contraband articles of every description to various parts of this province and Nova Scotia; so that the fair British merchant can have no equal competition with these illicit traders, even in the sale of British and West Indian goods. Whereas, on the contrary, if these islands were in the possession of his Majesty's subjects, very large quantities of fish and lumber would be thereby furnished by them for the supply of the British West India islands, the present ruinous contraband trade greatly interrupted, and a very beneficial carrying trade, in the article of plaster of Paris, in a great measure secured, Or, if the Americans were dispossessed of these islands, there is no other situation in that neighbourhood which could give them the advantages and opportunities to injure the trade of this province, which they now enjoy. |