Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/258

 of Irishmen, naturalised citizens of the United States, on a suspicion of crime, involved West in disagreeable correspondence between the two governments, and when some of those who had taken part in the Phoenix Park murders were traced and convicted, there were veiled threats against the British minister's life at the time of their execution. A trip in the president's yacht was deemed a wise precaution.

The discussion of various questions connected with Canada, especially the seizure by United States cruisers of Canadian vessels engaged in the pelagic seal fishery, and the measures taken by the Canadian government to protect their fishing rights in territorial waters against incursions by United States fishermen, occupied much of West's attention in succeeding years. In June 1885 he was made K.C.M.G. In 1887 he was called upon to discuss in conference with the United States secretary of state and the German minister the questions which had arisen in regard to the status of the Samoan Archipelago, but the negotiations did not result in an agreement, and the matter was left to be settled at Berlin in 1889. In October 1887 the English government decided to send out Mr. Joseph Chamberlain on a special mission for the purpose of negotiating jointly with West and Sir Charles Tupper (the Canadian high commissioner in England) a treaty for the settlement of the questions connected with the fishery rights in the seas adjacent to British North America and Newfoundland. A treaty was concluded on 15 Feb. 1888, but it failed to obtain confirmation by the United States Senate. It was however accompanied by a provisional arrangement for a modus vivendi under which United States fishing vessels were admitted for two years to fishing privileges in the waters of Canada and Newfoundland on payment of a moderate licence fee; thus the risk of serious friction was for the time removed.

During the seven years of his residence at Washington, West, who combined unfailing good temper and unaffected geniality of manner and disposition with a singular power of reserve and laconic speech, had enjoyed unqualified popularity, and had maintained excellent personal relations with the members of the United States government. Yet in the autumn of 1 888 his mission was brought to an abrupt and unexpected close. In September of that year, six weeks before the presidential election, he received a letter from California purporting to be written by a British subject naturalised in the United States, expressing doubts whether the writer should vote for the re-election of President Cleveland on account of the hostile policy which the democratic president appeared to be bent on pursuing towards Canada, and asking for advice. West unguardedly answered that any political party which openly favoured Great Britain at that moment would lose in popularity, and that the democratic party in power were no doubt fully alive to that fact, but that he had no reason to doubt that President Cleveland if re-elected would maintain a spirit of conciliation. West was the victim of a political trick. The letter sent to him was an imposture, and on 22 Oct. his reply was published in the 'New York Tribune,' an organ of the republican party, for the purpose of discrediting the democratic president with the Irish party. For a foreign representative to advise a United States citizen as to his vote was obviously a technical breach of international conventions. At first the United States government showed no disposition to treat the matter otherwise than as one admitting of explanations and expressions of regret, which West freely tendered. The popular excitement, however, increased as the date of the election approached ; copies of West's letter were distributed broadcast for the purpose of influencing votes against President Cleveland, and unfortunately West admitted the reporters of the 'New York Herald' and 'New York Tribune' to interviews. West disclaimed the statements attributed to him in the newspapers, but the United States government held them, in the absence of a published repudiation, to justify the immediate delivery to West of his passports. His mission consequently terminated on 30 Oct. 1888. Lord Salisbury, then foreign secretary, protested against the United States government's action in a note to the United States minister in London. 'There was nothing in Lord Sackville's conduct' (wrote Lord Salisbury) 'to justify so striking a departure from the circumspect and deliberate procedure by which in such cases it is the usage of friendly states to mark their consideration for each other.' To this the American secretary of state replied in a long despatch of justification, which, whatever may be thought of the technical arguments adduced, fails to remove the impression that West's abrupt dismissal was in reality an electoral device, adopted in the unavailing hope of averting the imminent defeat of the party in power.