Edw’d Thornton to Hamilton Fish, July 19, 1872

No. 183. Sir Edward Thornton to Mr. Fish.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday’s date, relative to the fisheries in the waters of Prince Edward Island, and I shall not fail to forward a copy of it to Earl Granville.

In the mean time I beg leave to assure you that the wishes and instructions of Her Majesty’s government are to the effect that due justice and forbearance should be exercised in the protection of the fisheries in those waters, to the use of which foreign fishermen are not admitted in the pursuit of their calling, and that all unnecessary cause of irritation should be avoided.

I am at the same time confident that the Government of the United States will, on its part, contribute toward preventing all grounds of dispute by doing its utmost to induce its citizens to abstain from fishing in those waters, for their admission to which the necessary legislation has not yet been carried out by the Congress of the United States.

I have, &c.,