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CHAPTER III. 



THE FISHERY CONVENTIONS. 



COMPARED with the eighteenth century and the earlier part of 

 the nineteenth, the period which has elapsed since the close of 

 the Napoleonic wars has been singularly free from occurrences 

 raising the question of the extent of the territorial sea in 

 connection with the rights of belligerents and neutrals. There 

 has been no great maritime war in Europe since the enormous 

 advance in the power of artillery rendered the three-mile limit 

 untenable for the security of a neutral state against the opera- 

 tions of belligerents in the sea off its coasts, though some ques- 

 tions involving the inadequacy of that limit came to the front 

 during the civil war in America. The chief questions affecting 

 the boundary of the territorial waters were concerned with sea 

 fisheries, and several conventions were made between European 

 nations in which limits were fixed for exclusive fishing. They 

 originated in the perennial disputes between British and foreign 

 fishermen. 



In previous chapters it has been shown that the intermittent 

 efforts of the British Government to establish an exclusive 

 right to the fisheries along the coasts of this country were 

 without definite result, except that it came to be tacitly 

 understood by the Dutch fishermen that they should keep 

 out of sight of the shore. At various times during the 

 eighteenth century complaints were made to the Govern- 

 ment of the encroachments of Dutch, French, and Danish 

 fishermen along our coasts and in the Channel, and repre- 

 sentations were in several instances made to the foreign 

 Government concerned. An examination of these complaints 

 shows that in many cases the foreigners were alleged to fish 



