The Fishery Question. 49 



and to make it appear expressly that the re- 

 nunciation was Hmitecl to three miles from 

 the coasts. 



Gallatin wrote from the scene of the con- 

 vention that if compromise must come, now 

 was the time. No court in England would 

 interpret the former treaty from the United 

 States' standpoint. If the matter were not 

 arranged, immediate collisions must ensue. 

 We then would have to fight." Mr. Adams 

 said : " This secures the whole coast fishing 

 three miles from the shore." For the next 

 few^years bounties on tonnage, drawbacks on 

 salt duties, license fees, exemption from 

 entry and clearing charges, the enterprise of 

 the American fishing industry and the supe- 

 riority of their fleet over the Canadian boats, 

 rendered the business, on the whole, prosper- 

 ous.^^ 



With time, Provincial, in contradistinction 

 to British interpretation of this treaty, and 

 notably the unfriendly spirit of provincial 

 regulations, was responsible for a feeling of 

 irritation, so pronounced as almost to have 

 invited a war. In 18 19 an act of Parliament, 

 empowering the King to make Orders in Coun- 

 cil for regulating the Fishery and imposing 



