No. 199.
Mr. Bayard to Sir L. West .

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I am in receipt of a report from the consul-general of the United States at Halifax, accompanied by sworn testimony stating that the Novelty, a duly registered merchant steam-vessel of the United States, has been denied the right to take in steam-coal, or purchase ice, or transship fish in bond to the United States, at Pictou, Nova Scotia.

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It appears that, having reached that port on the 1st instant and finding the customs office closed on account of a holiday, the master of the Novelty telegraphed to the minister of marine and fisheries at Ottawa, asking if he would be permitted to do any of the three things mentioned above; that he received, in reply, a telegram reciting with certain inaccurate and extended application the language of Article I of the treaty of 1818, the limitations upon the significance of which are in pending discussion between the Government of the United States and that of Her Britannic Majesty; that on entering and clearing the Novelty on the following day at the custom-house, the collector stated that his instructions were contained in the telegram the master had received; and that, the privilege of coaling being denied, the Novelty was compelled to leave Pictou without being allowed to obtain fuel necessary for her lawful voyage on a dangerous coast.

Against this treatment I make instant and formal protest as an unwarranted interpretation and application of the treaty by the officers of the Dominion of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia, as an infraction of the laws of commercial and maritime intercourse existing between the two countries, and as a violation of hospitality, and for any loss or injury resulting therefrom the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will be held liable.

I have, &c.,

T. F. BAYARD.