ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 43 



son the negotiations which had been entered into between the two 

 Governments had been interrupted in consequence of the objection of 

 Canada, and they were in a state of suspended animation, so to speak, 

 with no immediate prospect of their being renewed; that under these 

 circumstances President Harrison felt it his duty to issue the prochx- 

 mation required of him by hiw, forbidding all ])elagic sealing in the 

 waters of Alaska; that that proclamation was followed by additional 

 seizures, and those seizures brought renewed protests from the British 

 Government, and thus the controversy was renewed; that the demands 

 of the liritish Government consequent upon the seizures were repeated 

 from time to time, and some pressure was exerted upon the United 

 States for the purpose of inducing the Government to issue instruc- 

 tions to prevent the further interference with British vessels engaged 

 in pelagic sealing; that while this was going on, the Government of 

 President Harrison took the whole subject into consideration, and 

 finally the views of the Government were expressed in a note by Mr. 

 Blaine to Sir Julian Pauncefote, with the reading of which the session 

 of yesterday was concluded. 



The Tribunal will have observed that Mr. Blaine in this quite long 

 note stated rather fully the substantial ground upon which the Govern- 

 ment of the United States placed itself. Those grounds had not been 

 theretofore stated. They had been hinted at and intimated by Mr. 

 Secretary Bayard in his instructions to the American Ministers at for- 

 eign Governments designed to call the attention of those Governments 

 to the subject Avith the view that some amicable adjustment of the 

 matter might be made without any resort to discussions upon which 

 difierences of opinion might be entertained. He avoided, in other 

 words, all discussion of the grounds of right upon which the United 

 States placed itself. That discussion of the grounds of right, that 

 statement of the attitude and position of the United States Govern- 

 ment was made for the first time by Mr. Blaine in the note which I 

 read just at the close of yesterday's session. In substance those 

 grounds were that the Ujiited States was carrying on an industri/ in 

 connection with these seals, caring for them, cherishing them, taking 

 the natural increase from the herd and preserving the stock on the 

 Pribilof Islands ; that this was an industry advantageous not only to its 

 lessees but, what was of much more importance, advantageous to man- 

 kind; that the pursuit of pelagic sealing threatened that industry with 

 destruction, destruction not only to the interests of the United States 

 and its citizens, but also to the larger interests of mankind; that it 

 was essentially and absolutely wrong, and should not be permitted; 

 and therefore that the United States had a right to prevent it, Avhen, 

 added to its essentially destructive and illegitimate character, it had 

 this injurious effect upon a special industry and right of the United 

 States. Those were the grounds upon which the case of the United 

 States was put by Mr. Blaine, and put by him, as I have already said, 

 for the first time in that full and complete form. 



After the receipt of that note by Sir Julian, he addressed the follow- 

 ing brief communication to Mr. Blaine, which is found on page 204 of 

 the American Appendix: 



Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. 



Washington, Fchrnarij 10, 1S90. 

 Sir: Her Majesty's Governmeut have had for sometime under their cousideration 

 the suggestion made in the conrso of our interviews on the question of the seal fish- 

 eries in Behring's Sea, that it nught expedite a settlement of the controversy if the 

 tripartite negotiation respecting the establishment of a close time for those fisheries 



