INTRODUCTION xxv 



Even after the land boundary had been de 

 termined, the sea and the creatures that make 

 the value of the sea remained to disturb the 

 repose of the two nations. In the wandering 

 waves one can fix no boundaries, and in the 

 wandering fish one can assert no property, so 

 fishing questions have always been a source of 

 trouble. Questions arose regarding the seal 

 fisheries of the Pacific. Controversies far more 

 intricate and far more protracted produced an 

 almost incessant irritation between the fisher 

 men who came from New England to the coasts 

 of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and the 

 native fishermen who plied their trade there 

 under the British flag. Not till 1910 was this 

 seemingly endless dispute adjusted by the sen 

 tence of The Hague tribunal which both parties 

 accepted without a murmur. 



The two nations were akin in blood and speech, 

 but a common speech carries with it one disad 

 vantage. Each nation can read all the ill- 

 natured things that are said about it in the other; 

 and there are never wanting those who like to 

 say ill-natured things, sometimes from a vanity 

 which seeks to exalt itself by depressing others, 

 sometimes from a wish to compel attention and 

 produce an effect for in literature, and espe- 



