in the way of satisfactory
adjustment.

The object of the convention between the United States and Great Britain
of the 19th of April, 1850, was to secure for the benefit of all nations
the neutrality and the common use of any transit way or interoceanic
communication across the Isthmus of Panama which might be opened within
the limits of Central America. The pretensions subsequently asserted by
Great Britain to dominion or control over territories in or near two of
the routes, those of Nicaragua and Honduras, were deemed by the United
States not merely incompatible with the main object of the treaty, but
opposed even to its express stipulations. Occasion of controversy on
this point has been removed by an additional treaty, which our minister
at London has concluded, and which will be immediately submitted to
the Senate for its consideration. Should the proposed supplemental
arrangement be concurred in by all the parties to be affected by it,
the objects contemplated by the original convention will have been
fully attained.

The treaty between the United States and Great Britain of the 5th of
June, 1854, which went into effective operation in 1855, put an end to
causes of irritation between the two countries, by securing to the
United States the right of fishery on the coast of the British North
American Provinces, with advantages equal to those enjoyed by British
subjects. Besides the signal benefits of this treaty to a large class of
our citizens engaged in a pursuit connected to no inconsiderable degree
with our national prosperity and strength, it has had a favorable effect
upon other interests in the provision it made for reciprocal freedom of
trade between the United States and the British Provinces in America.

The exports of domestic articles to those Provinces during the last year
amounted to more than $22,000,000, exceeding those of the preceding year
by nearly $7,000,000; and the imports therefrom during the same period
amounted to more than twenty-one million, an increase of six million
upon those of the previous year.

The improved condition of this branch of our commerce is mainly
attributable to the above-mentioned treaty.

Provision was made in the first article of that treaty for a commission
to designate the mouths of rivers to which the common right of fishery
on the coast of the United States and the British Provinces was not to
extend. This commission has been employed a part of two seasons,