No. 303.
Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts.

[Extract.]
No. 130.]

Sir: Immediately on receiving your dispatches numbered respectively 109 and 110, which reached me during the forenoon of the 15th, I addressed a note to Lord Granville, asking for an interview. In reply, he appointed 3 o’clock next day (the 16th) and at that hour I accordingly saw him at the foreign office. I carried with me copies of both dispatches, but said nothing about No. 109, because the reading to him of that was left to my discretion, and I thought it wiser to be guided by the tone and results of our conversation. I merely communicated the fact of new outrages and the natural feeling produced by them. After the reading of the dispatch (No. 110), Lord Granville said that he “regretted the tone of it as more exacting than he had hoped it would be, and hardly in unison with the conciliatory course of Her Majesty’s Government.” The ground of this hope, he gave me to understand, had been the friendly terms of your telegram of 12th June last. I answered that I had no reason to believe that the tone of the dispatch indicated any [Page 503] diminution on the part of the United States of amicable feeling, but was the expression only of a natural impatience at excessive delay. I added that, though I had no information as to how much weight my government would attach to the allegations of Professor Hinde, yet that they had been brought before Congress by Mr. Springer, would be generally believed by the fishermen, and would tend to exasperate public opinion, already impatient.

Lord Granville said * * * that at first sight there seemed to be propositions in the dispatch with which Her Majesty’s Government would be inclined to agree. The proposal to refer the question of damages to you and Sir E. Thornton, or to two persons delegated by you and him, seemed to him to be a good one. But on the whole matter he must consult his colleagues before replying definitely. He added that he had no objection to the reservation by each government of their opinions as to their respective rights under the treaty. It might be hoped that such questions would be set at rest both by the agreement which might be come to as to damages to be paid to American fishermen, and by the regulations to be established for the future.

I replied that I had certainly no intention to precipitate discussion, but wished to impress on him the great importance of the right of strand fishing, referring in illustration to the concession of a part of the shore to France.

* * * * * * *

Your first telegram reached me late on Friday night. On Saturday morning I called on Lord Granville at his house, and informed him that I had another dispatch to communicate, which I had withheld on Saturday, in the exercise of my discretion, the tenor of which it was desirable that he should know before consulting with his colleagues in the ministry. I then stated to him the substance of it, informing him at the same time that you considered it as a necessary introduction to your No. 110, and that I had misinterpreted the meaning of my instructions in regard to it. He said that he should prefer not receiving it at that time, and having accomplished the main point of letting him know its contents, especially the intimation that the necessity might be forced on the President of a display of force to protect our fishermen, I consented to postpone its official communication till Monday. At our interview on that day, I read to him confidentially the important passages which I had before put in my own words. He said that he should be sorry to consider them as conveying a menace. I replied that their evident meaning was to express only the grave anxiety of the President at the consequences of prolonged delay.

The result of the interview I have already transmitted by telegraph. Lord Granville assented to the reference as proposed by you, only adding that, in case you and Sir E. Thornton should delegate your powers, he should prefer that you would name an umpire, to decide disputed points. I inferred that his own choice would be any member of the diplomatic body at Washington who could speak English. He also wished me to ask whether the offer of a lump sum in damages would be considered by you.

I regret very much that a misapprehension on my part should have led me to act on a misinterpretation of my instructions. I acted according to my best judgment, and in the desire not in any way to embarrass a ministry of whose friendly intentions I was assured.

* * * * * * *

I have, &c.,

J. R. LOWELL.