No. 253.
Mr. Thornton to Mr. Fish.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday’s date, in which you call my attention to the first paragraph of the Canadian order of council of the 8th of January last, relative to the Canadian fisheries. I am forwarding a copy of your note to the Governor General of Canada; but, in the mean time, I beg you will allow me to express my conviction that there was not the slightest intention, in issuing the above-mentioned order, to abridge citizens of the United States of any of the rights to which they are entitled by the treaty of October 20, 1818, and which are tacitly acknowledged in the Canadian law of May 22, 1808, a copy of which I had the honor to forward to you in my note of the 14th instant.