The Fishery Question. 79 



houses of Eastport, capitalized at $1,000,000, 

 has paid in one year $50,000 duty on tin 

 plate. '^'' Few people are fitted by habit or 

 occupation to form a conception of the mag- 

 nificent courage that mans the boats for '' the 

 Georges " or drops anchor among a fleet on 

 the banks. '^' It is the qualities required 

 amonof the workers at this business, and not 

 their gains, that single them out for admira- 

 tion. The difference now existing between 

 the wholesale and retail price of fish is from 

 100 to 200 per cent.'^^ This discrepancy is of 

 no benefit to the catcher. If neither he nor 

 the consumer are to be considered, but some 

 one else, then not only is the sympathy of the 

 public alienated by retaliation, but the en- 

 deavor to ascertain how an important article 

 of food may become more abundant and less 

 expensive will be quickened. What are our 

 rights, guaranteed by an arrangement framed 

 before the recognition of the mackerel fishery, 

 and signed in 1818, the same year that the 

 United States laid an embargo, at a time when 

 our commercial relations with Great Britain 

 have been characterized as "mediaeval?" 

 Where is the treaty to modify these hard con- 

 ditions and, especially, where is the *' most 



