106 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



He also refers to the case of the " Harriet" as follows: 



Hunt's "Mer- . . . The President at the same time declared, that the name 



cliants' M aga - of the Republic of Ijuenos Ayreabad been used, to cover with a show of 



1842, p. m."'"^' authority, acts injurious to the commerce of the United States, and 



to theprojierty and liberty of their citizens; for which reason, he had 



given orders for the dispatch of an armed vessel to join the American 



8((uadron in the south seas, aud aid in attbrdiug all lawful ])rotection 



to the trade of the Union, which niioht be required; aud he should 



without delay send a Minister to Buenos Ayres, to examine into the 



nature of the circumstances, and also of the claim set up by that 



Government to the Falkland Islands. 



Ibid., p. 144. . . . The (juestion had, however, become more complicated 



before the arrival of Mr. Bayless at JUienos Ayies. 



The "Lexington" reachecl lierkeley Sound on the 28th December, 

 and lay at the entrance, during a severe gale, until the olst, when 

 she went up and anchored in front of the harbour of Soledad. Boats 

 were immediately sent ashore, with armed seamen and marines, who 

 made prisoners of Brisbane, Metcalf, and some other persons, aud sent 

 them on board the ship; the cannon mounted before the i)lace were 

 at the same time spiked, some of the arms and ammunition 

 139 Avere destroyed, and the seal skins and other articles taken 

 from the "Harriot" and "Superior" were removed from the 

 warehouses, and placed in the schoouer "Dash," which carried them 

 to the United States. Captain Duncan then gave notice to the inhab- 

 itants that the seal iishery on those coasts was in future to be free to 

 all Americans ; and that the capture of any vessel of the United 

 States would be regarded as an act of piracy; and having affixed a 

 declaration in writing to that elfect on the door of the Government- 

 house, he took his departure, on the 22nd January, 1832, carrying 

 with him in the " Lexington," Brisbane and six other persons as pris- 

 oners, with many of the negroes and settlers as passengers. 



HALIFAX I'lSIIElilES COMMISSION. MR. DAXa's SPEKCII. 



Mr. 11. H. Dana, in his speech on behalf of the United 

 States before the Halifax Fisheries Comiuission in 1887, 

 says : 



Reconl of the The right to fish in the sea is in its nature not real, as the common 

 Proceedinjcs ot jj^^^ jj.^g j^ ^^^ immovable, as named bv tlie civil law, but personal. 

 Halifax lisbt-r- y, . ti j. t4. • r i • j- ' u. tj. ■ I j. 



ies Commission, ^^ 1^ * liberty. It 18 a irauehiso or a laculty. It is not property per- 



1877, p. 1(J53. taining to or connected with the land. It is incorporeal; it is aborig- 

 inal. The right of fishing, dropjiiug line or net into tlie sea, to draw 

 from it the means of sustenance, is as old as the human race, and the 

 limits that have been sot about it have been set about it in recent and 

 modern times, aud wherever the fisherman is excluded, a reason for 

 excluding him should always bo given. I s])eak of the deep sea fi.sli- 

 ermen following the free-swimming fish through the sea, not of the 

 crustaceous animals, or of any of those that connect themselves with 

 the soil under the sea or adjacent to the sea, nor do I speak of any 

 fishing which requires possession of the land or any touching or troub- 

 ling the bottom of the sea; I speak of the deep-sea tishermen who 

 sail over the higli seas pursuing the free-swimming fish of the high 

 seas. Against them, it is a question not of admission, but of exclusion. 

 These fish are not property. Noboily owns them. They come we 

 know not Avheuce, and go we know not whither. 



They are no man's ]iroj»erty ; they belong, by right of nature to 

 those who take them, aud every man may take them who can. 



i)i;. wooi.sey's opinion. 



Dr. Woolsey, in the sixth edition of his Treatise on Inter- 

 national Law, says : 



Sec. ."jg, p. 7:'-, Therecentcontroversy between Great Britain and the Uuited States 

 8i.\th edition. involving the right of I'.rltish subjects to catch seals in North Pacific 

 waters appears to be an attempted re\i%'al of these old claims to juris- 

 diction over broad stretches of sea. That an international agreement 



