THE FISHERY CONVENTIONS 



623 



distinction between coast and bays was meant in the clause of 

 the treaty of 1818, then the words "bays, creeks, and harbours" 

 are without meaning and superfluous, a construction which is 

 contrary to the rule which requires that effect be given to 

 every word in a contract or treaty. That the British construc- 

 tion was correct was virtually admitted by Mr Webster, the 

 American Secretary of State, when he said in a State paper, 

 6th July 1852, that " it was undoubtedly an oversight in the 

 convention of 1818 to make so large a concession to England, 



Fig. 17. Bay of Fundy. A, United States territory. 



since the United States had usually considered that those vast 

 inlets, or recesses of the ocean, ought to be open to American 

 fishermen as freely as the sea itself, to within three miles of 

 the shore." He admitted, moreover, that the word bay applied 

 equally to small and large tracts of water situated between 

 capes or headlands. 



In 1824, and again in 1838 and 1839, British cruisers seized 

 American vessels for fishing within the Bay of Fundy, the 

 Bay of Chaleurs, and elsewhere in contravention of the treaty 



