188 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the most beneficent tribute the ocean pays to earth on this terraqueous 

 globe. By the pleasure of the Creator of earths and seas, it has been 

 constituted in its physical nature one fishery, extending in the open 

 seas around that island to little less than five degrees of latitude from 

 the coast, spreading along the whole northern coast of this continent, 

 and insinuating itself into all the bays, creeks, and harbors to the 

 very borders of the shores. For the full enjoyment of an equal share 

 in this fishery it was necessary to have a nearly general access to 

 every pari of it. * * * 



"By the law of nature this fishery belonged to the inhabitants of 

 the regions in the neighborhood of which it was situated. By the con- 

 ventional law of Europe it belonged to the European nations which had 

 formed settlements in those regions. France, as the first principal set- 

 tler in them, had long claimed exclusive right to it. Great Britain, 

 moved in no small degree by the value of the fishery itself, had made 

 the conquest of all those regions from France (by force), and had lim- 

 ited, by treaty, within a narrow compass the right of France to any 

 share in the fishery. Spain, upon some claim of prior discovery, had 

 for some time enjoyed a share of the fishery on the banks, but at the 

 last treaty of peace prior to the American Revolution had expressly 

 renounced it. At the commencement of the American Revolution, 

 therefore, this fishery belonged exclusively to the British nation, sub- 

 ject to a certain limited participation in it reserved by treaty stipu- 

 lations to France." 



He further cites (page 185) an act of the British Parliament passed 

 in March, 1875: 



"In March, 1775, the British Parliament passed an act to restrain 

 the trade and commerce of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New 

 Hampshire, and colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Provi- 

 dence Plantation in North America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the 

 British Islands in the West Indies, and to prohibit such provinces and 

 colonies from carrying on any fishery on the banks of Newfoundland 

 and other places therein mentioned, under certain conditions and limi- 

 tations." 



And the remarks of Lord North in bringing in the bill: 



"In particular he said that the fishery on the banks of Newfound- 

 land and the other banks and all the others in America was the un- 

 doubted right of Great Britain; there/ore ice might dispose of them as 

 we pleased." 



Mr. Adams again observes (page 187): 



"The whole fishery (with the exception of the reserved and limited 

 right of Fiance) was the exclusive property of the British Empire. The 

 right to a full participation in that property belonged by the law of 

 nature to the people of New England from their locality." 



And in support of the validity of this proprietary right, he quotes 

 (page 107) the passage from Vattel heretofore cited. (' Vattel, 1 Ch., 23.) 



lie cites also (page 169) from Valin (Vol. 2, page 693) in respect to 

 these fisheries as follows: 



"As to the right of fishing upon the bank of Newfoundland, as that 

 island which is as it Mere the sent of this fishery then belonged to 

 France, it was so held by the French that other nations could naturally 

 fish there only by virtue of the treaties. This has since changed by 

 means of the cession of the island of Newfoundland made to the English 

 by the treaty of Utrecht; but Louis XIV, at the time of that cession, 

 made an express reservation of the right of fishing upon the bank of 

 Newfoundland, in favor of the French as before." 



