e access to the Canadian fisheries. The free navigation of
the St. Lawrence was conceded to the United States in return for the
free use of Lake Michigan and of certain rivers in Alaska. The question
of giving to the vessels of the Canadian provinces the privilege of
trading on the coast of the United States--a privilege persistently
demanded for years by Nova Scotia--was not considered; and while the
canals of Canada were opened up to the United States on the most liberal
terms, the Washington government contented itself with a barren promise
in the treaty to use its influence with the authorities of the states to
open up their artificial waterways to Canadians. The Fenian claims were
abruptly laid aside, although, if the principle of "due diligence,"
which was laid down in the new rules for the settlement of the Alabama
difficulty had been applied to this question, the government of the
United States would have been mulcted in heavy damages. In this case it
would be difficult to find a more typical instance of responsibility
assumed by a state through the permission of open and notorious acts,
and by way of complicity after the acts; however, as in many other
negotiations with the United States, Canada felt she must make
sacrifices for the empire, whose government wished all causes of
irritation between England and the United States removed as far as
possible by the treaty. One important feature of this commission was the
presence, for the first time in the history of treaties, of a Canadian
statesman. The astute prime minister of the Dominion, Sir John
Macdonald, was chosen as one of the English high commissioners: and
though he was necessarily tied down by the instructions of the imperial
state, his knowledge of Canadian questions was of great service to
Canada during the conference. If the treaty finally proved more
favourable to the Dominion than it at first appeared to be, it was owing
largely to the clause which provided for a reference to a later
commission of the question, whether the United States would not have to
pay the Canadians a sum of money, as the value of their fisheries over
and above any concessions made them in the treaty. The result of this
commission was a payment of five millions and a half of dollars to
Canada and Newfoundland, to the infinite disappointment of the
politicians of the United States, who had been long accustomed to have
the best in all the bargains with their neighbours. Nothing s