Lepine had been sentenced to death by Chief Justice Wood of Manitoba, but Lord Dufferin commuted the sentence to two years' imprisonment and permanent forfeiture of political rights. Lord Dufferin acted under the royal instructions which gave the governor-general power to dispense with the advice of his ministers under special circumstances, and to exercise the prerogative of the crown according to his independent judgment. In a state paper dealing with the matter he considered five pleas for amnesty: (1) That Archbishop Taché went to Manitoba as a plenipotentiary authorized by the British and Canadian governments. (2) That an amnesty was promised to Judge Black, Richot and Scott, the delegates sent by the Red River settlers to Ottawa. (3) That those who killed Scott represented a de facto government. (4) That Riel had been paid to leave the country; and (5) That Governor Archibald had availed himself of the assistance of Riel, Lepine and others in preventing the Fenian invasion, threatened in 1871. He disallowed all the pleas but the last. Concerning that he said:

After the governor of a province has put arms into the hands of a subject and has invited him to risk his life, with a full knowledge at the time that the individual in question was amenable to the law for crimes previously committed, the executive is no longer in a position to pursue the person thus dealt with as a felon. The acceptance of the service might be held, I imagine, to bar the prosecution of the offender; for undesirable as it may be that a great criminal should go unpunished, it would be still more pernicious that the government of the country should show a want of fidelity to its engagements, or exhibit a narrow spirit in its interpretation of them.

ΤΗ

V

THE WASHINGTON TREATY

HE year 1870 marks the beginning of an important period in the history of the relations of Canada with the United States. The question of the fisheries had been unsettled since the treaty of 1783, giving the fishermen of the United States certain fishing rights on the shores of

Newfoundland and other portions of British North America. The point was raised whether these privileges were cancelled by the war of 1812-14. The contention of the United States was that the treaty of 1783 was perpetual as to fishing privileges, just as it was perpetual as to independence. The British enforced their claims under protest from the United States until 1818, when a convention was made between the two countries by which the American fishermen were allowed to share in the inshore fisheries on certain British coasts and were excluded from others.

By the abrogation of the Elgin Treaty in 1866 the parties were thrown back to the convention of 1818. To prevent friction it was then agreed that annual licences should be issued to fishermen of the United States on payment of a nominal fee. At first a considerable number of licences were taken out, but when the fee was increased in 1868 there was much fishing without licence. On January 8, 1870, the Canadian government abolished the licence system and sent out a fleet of cruisers to protect the fisheries. Seizures of American vessels were made and there was much irritation. President Grant in his annual message to Congress in 1870 severely criticized the action of the Canadian government. There were other causes of friction. Canada had a claim on the United States arising out of the Fenian raids. At the same time the United States claimed damages against Great Britain for the loss to American shipping caused by the escape of the Alabama.

In his speech defending the Washington Treaty, in 1872, Sir John Macdonald said that as long as the Alabama question remained open Great Britain was seriously weakened in dealing with other European powers. He feared that the Alabama question might be pressed just when Great Britain was engaged in mortal combat with some other nation. The Johnson-Clarendon Treaty, intended to settle this dispute, had been rejected by the senate of the United States; Great Britain could not with self-respect have reopened the question of the Alabama. Sir John Macdonald said that the fishery question was regarded by Great Britain as furnishing an opportunity for indirectly reopening the Alabama question.

'The invitation was made by the British Ambassador to consider the fishery question. The United States-by a quiet and friendly understanding between the two powersreplied, acceding to the request, on condition that the larger and graver matters of dispute were also made a matter of negotiation.'

In 1870 the Hon. Alexander Campbell, postmaster-general, was sent to England to consult the imperial government concerning the proposed withdrawal of troops from Canada, the question of fortifications, the invasions of Canadian territory by citizens of the United States, the systematic trespasses on the Canadian fishing grounds by United States fishermen, and the unsettled question as to the limits within which foreigners could fish under the treaty of 1818. The British government suggested the appointment of a joint high commission to discuss questions which had arisen out of the fisheries, as well as all those which affected the relations of the United States towards Canada.

In the American reply the opinion was expressed that a settlement of the Alabama claims would also be essential to the restoration of cordial relations. To this proposal the British government agreed, 'provided that all other claims both of British subjects and citizens of the United States arising out of acts committed during the recent civil war in that country, are similarly referred to this commission.'

Both sides then named their plenipotentiaries as follows:

Great Britain

EARL DE GREY AND RIPON, president of the Privy
Council.

SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE, M.P.

SIR EDWARD THORNTON, British minister at Washington.
SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, prime minister of Canada.
MOUNTAGUE BERNARD, professor of international law
at Oxford.

United States

HAMILTON FISH, secretary of state.

R. C. SCHENK, minister to Great Britain.