THE FISHERIES QUESTION 331 



7, the schooner being sent to Saint John, New Brunswick, 

 for trial. The question involved in this trial was the 

 right of an American fishing vessel to buy bait in the 

 British waters not free to such a vessel for the purposes 

 of fishing. Other seizures were made that year, which 

 brought up the whole subject of the right to buy bait 

 and supplies, other than wood and water mentioned in the 

 convention of 1818. The substance of the controversy that 

 followed is set forth by Freeman Snow in his "Topics of 

 American Diplomacy ' ' : 



"To follow the question back to the date of that convention, 

 we find that the United States, by the said convention, 'renounced 

 the liberty to fish' in certain defined waters; but American fisher- 

 men were permitted to enter the same for the 'purposes of shel- 

 ter, of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood and of 

 obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever.' The act 

 of parliament passed the next year, 1819, to carry this conven- 

 tion into effect, imposed no penalties for the purchase of bait 

 or other supplies, and it would seem that American fishermen 

 went on buying these articles as they had done before ; and there 

 is no record of any proceedings against them therefor until 

 1870. . . . 



"The counsel for the owners of the Adams argued that Amer- 

 ican fishermen had a right to buy, in Canadian waters, bait and 

 other supplies necessary for fishing, to be used in the deep-sea 

 fisheries. 



"The Canadian counsel insisted upon the strict interpretation 

 of the treaty, that American vessels may enter their waters for 

 purposes of shelter, repairing damages, the purchase of wood 

 and obtaining water, and 'for no other purpose whatever.' As 

 the British courts do not administer treaties, but only the stat- 

 utes that are passed to carry the treaties into effect, the Canadian 

 courts encountered a difficulty, from the fact that the Imperial 

 Act of 1819, to carry into effect the convention of 1818, im- 

 posed no penalty for buying bait or supplies; the only penalty 

 was for 'fishing or preparing to fish' within the prohibited waters. 



