was that foreign fishing vessels were only shut out from the
bays on the coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick within the Bay of
Fundy. All these questions were, however, placed in abeyance by the
reciprocity treaty of 1854 (see p. 96), which lasted until 1866, when it
was repealed by the action of the United States, in accordance with the
provision bringing it to a conclusion after one year's notice from one
of the parties interested.

The causes which led in 1866 to the repeal of a treaty so advantageous
to the United States have been long well understood. The commercial
classes in the eastern and western states were, on the whole, favourable
to an enlargement of the treaty; but the real cause of its repeal was
the prejudice in the northern states against Canada on account of its
supposed sympathy for the confederate states during the Secession war. A
large body of men in the north believed that the repeal of the treaty
would sooner or later force Canada to join the republic; and a bill was
actually introduced in the house of representatives providing for her
admission--a mere political straw, it is true, but showing the current
of opinion in some quarters in those days. When we review the history of
those times, and consider the difficult position in which Canada was
placed, it is remarkable how honourably her government discharged its
duties of a neutral between the belligerents. In the case of the raid of
some confederate refugees in Canada on the St. Alban's bank in Vermont,
the Canadian authorities brought the culprits to trial and even paid a
large sum of money in acknowledgment of an alleged responsibility when
some of the stolen notes were returned to the robbers on their release
on technical grounds by a Montreal magistrate. It is well, too, to
remember how large a number of Canadians fought in the union
armies--twenty against one who served in the south. No doubt the
position of Canada was made more difficult at that critical time by the
fact that she was a colony of Great Britain, against whom both north and
south entertained bitter feelings by the close of the war; the former
mainly on account of the escape of confederate cruisers from English
ports, and the latter because she did not receive active support from
England. The north had also been much excited by the promptness with
which Lord Palmerston had sent troops to Canada when Mason and Slidell
were seized on an English packet on the high seas, and b