s equal to the difficulty and proposed
the question, Where does the three-mile limit extend? The American
jurists and diplomats insisted that it followed all the sinuosities of
the shore. If admitted, this claim would give American fishermen the
right of entrance to huge British bights and bays full of valuable
fish. The Canadian contention was that the three-mile limit ran from
headland to headland, thus excluding the Americans from fishing within
the deeper indentations of the coast-line. By the treaty of 1818 the
Americans were definitely excluded from the territorial waters, but
still they poached on Canada's preserves. It was maddening to Nova
Scotians to see aliens insolently hauling their nets within sight of
shore and taking the bread from their mouths. {150} The Americans
applied the headland to headland rule to their own territorial waters;
no 'Bluenose' fisherman could venture into the Chesapeake; but for the
'Britishers' to insist on the same rule was another matter. In 1852
the constant clash of interests almost led to war; for Britain backed
up the just complaints of her colonies by detaching a force of six
cruisers to protect our fisheries and stop the poachers, and the
American government also sent ships to protect their fishermen. There
was no further action, beyond a recommendation in the President's
message to Congress that the whole matter should be settled by treaty.

Such was the situation when Lord Elgin arrived at Washington in May
1854. His suite included Hincks and Laurence Oliphant, the writer,
whose humorous and satiric account of what he saw during the
negotiations makes most amusing reading. The diplomats reached the
American capital at one of the most dramatic moments of American
history. On the very day of their arrival the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
passed Congress. It meant the momentary triumph of the South and the
extension of slavery into the great _hinterland_ beyond the
Mississippi. {151} The passage of the bill was celebrated by the
salute of a hundred guns; and, fearing trouble, legislators sat in the
House armed to the teeth.

Lord Elgin at once began operations which can hardly be distinguished
from an ordinary lobby. From Marcy, the secretary of state, he
ascertained that the kernel of opposition to reciprocity was the
Democratic majority in the Senate, and he set about cultivating the
Democratic senators. There was a round of pleasant dinners and other
entertainme