18 
Spanish fishermen went to work also (as the place was 
equally free to both nations,) destroying the means of pro- 
duction of those species, which would naturally tend to 
seek another place farther off, with an appreciable loss to 
both Spaniards and Frenchmen. 
It is necessary, therefore, that we should endeavour, 
considering the universal interests involved, to recommend 
in our respective countries the necessity of coming to an 
agreement by means of international treaties, so that the 
abuse of one nation may not prejudice the others. 
It is evident that it is an error to consider the boundaries 
of national waters as the measure of international juris- 
diction, because fish cannot be made to respect these 
limitations, which only apply to other matters, and more 
space is required in order that the bordering nations may 
watch over their preservation, not abandoning it as they do 
now by reason of this small territorial limit. 
I will conclude with a point of great importance. We 
are all deeply impressed with the sufferings to which the 
fisherman is subject in his precarious occupation, ending in 
many cases in an untimely death ; and as we have already 
said the waters have no frontiers, neither have human 
sentiments. It follows then that all coasting nations may 
afford protection from some of the sailor’s perils by means of 
benevolent societies, giving relief in cases of shipwreck and 
in any other disasters contracted in the calling. 
All nations should combine for the mutual aid and 
propagation of societies of this nature, by means of which 
the man, well-to-do and exempt from perils, fulfils one of his 
most sacred duties—the relief of the poor hardly-worked 
fisherman. 
At the conclusion of the Paper, the CHAIRMAN said it 
had been considered wiser to defer the discussion upon it, 
