290 THE GROWTH OF CANADA 



trend of imperial relations that one of the 

 British representatives should be Sir John S. D. 

 Thompson, Canadian minister of justice, and 

 that the responsibilities of British agent should 

 be assigned to Sir Charles Tupper. The tri 

 bunal met for its first session at Paris in Feb 

 ruary, 1893, and rendered its decision on the 

 1 5th of August following. On all the points 

 formally submitted for adjudication the de 

 cision was adverse to the contention of the 

 United States. It was held that that power, in 

 taking over Alaska from Russia, acquired no 

 exclusive jurisdiction in Behring Sea and no 

 exclusive rights in the seal fisheries therein; 

 and that the American Government had no 

 right of protection or property in the fur-seals 

 that frequented the Pribilof Islands when the 

 animals were outside the three-mile limit. At 

 the same time the tribunal formulated regula 

 tions and restrictions under which, for the pres 

 ervation of the herd, pelagic sealing ought to 

 be carried on, and these rules were duly enacted 

 into law by both governments for their respect 

 ive subjects. Thus the maintenance of bonos 

 mores on the high seas was made a matter of 

 international co-operation, while the American 

 Government, for its ambitious undertaking to 



