The Fishery Question. 61 



for adjustment between Great Britain and 

 the United States. By far the most impor- 

 tant were those arising from the depredations 

 of the Alabama on American commerce. 

 They had become more definite in conse- 

 quence of their assumption by the United 

 States Government. The Fishery Question 

 offered a convenient excuse for a Joint High 

 Commission.''^ 



One milHon dollars for the in-shore fishery, 

 in perpetuity, was offered by the American 

 Commissioners during the negotiations pre- 

 ceding the signing of the treaty of Washing- 

 ton. Freedom from molestation, rather 

 than the profit of fishing in-shore, constituted, 

 in their opinion, the value of this concession. 

 The British Commissioners considered this 

 sum inadequate and found insuperable objec- 

 tions to the transfer of the right. Finally it 

 was decided to admit the United States to 

 the Fishery in consideration of the remission 

 of the duty on Canadian fish and fish oil, and 

 the appointment of arbitrators to assess the 

 value, if any, of the British concession in ex- 

 cess of the American, which included a free 

 fishery on the United States coasts, north of 

 the thirty-ninth degree of north latitude. 



