88 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



that treaty, the Americans had no right to dry and cure fish on the 

 shores and bays of Newfoundland, but they had that right on the 

 coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks of Xova Scotia; and as they must 

 land to cure fish on the shores, bays, and creeks, they were evidently 

 admitted to the shores of the bays, &c. By the treat}' of 1818, the 

 same right is granted to cure fish on the coasts, bays, &c., of New- 

 foundland, but the Americans relinquished that right, and the right 

 to -fish within three miles of the coasts, bays, cf-c., of Nova Scotia. 

 Taking it for granted that the framers of the treaty intended that 

 the word " bay " or "' bays " should have the same meaning in all 

 cases, and no mention being made of headlands, there appears no 

 doubt that the "Washington," in fishing ten miles from the shore, 

 violated no stipulations of the treaty. 



It was urged on behalf of the British Government, that by coasts, 

 bays, &c., is understood an imaginary line, drawn along the coast 

 from headland to headland, and that the jurisdiction of Her Majesty 

 extends three marine miles outside of this line; thus closing all the 

 bays on the coast or shore, and that great body of water called the 

 Bay of Fundy, against Americans and others, making the latter a 

 British bay. This doctrine of the headlands is new, and has 

 100 received a proper limit in the convention between France and 

 Great Britain of 2nd August, 1839, in which " it is agreed that 

 the distance of three miles fixed as the general limit for the exclusive 

 right of fishery upon the coasts of the two countries shall, with respect 

 to bays, the mouths of which do not exceed ten miles in width, be 

 measured from a straight line drawn from headland to headland." 



The Bay of Fundy is from 65 to 75 miles wide, and 130 to 140 miles 

 long; it has several bays on its coast; thus the word bay, as applied 

 to this great body of water, has the same meaning as that applied to 

 the Bay of Biscay, the Bay of Bengal, over which no nation can have 

 the right to assume sovereignty. One of the headlands of the Bay 

 of Fundy is in the United States, and ships bound to Passamaquoddy 

 must sail through a large space of it. The islands of Grand Menan 

 (British) and Little Menan (American) are situated nearly on a line 

 from headland to headland. These islands, as represented in all 

 geographies, are situated in the Atlantic Ocean. The conclusion is, 

 therefore, in my mind irresistible, that the Bay of Fundy is not a 

 British bay, nor a bay within the meaning of the word as used in the 

 treaties of 1783 and 1818. 



Mr. Bates was a banker, and not a lawyer, and it is not thought 

 necessary to discuss the legal points on which he expressed an opinion. 

 The doctrine of headlands on which he lays stress was, of course, not 

 new. It is the same question as that of bays, for if bays are terri- 

 torial waters then there is a right of sovereignty over the whole of 

 them, that is, over all the space within the line drawn from headland 

 to headland. On the question of fact he spoke with greater authority, 

 and on that, he found that the headlands of the Bay of Fundy were 

 not both British. It followed, in his opinion, from that finding, that 

 the bay was not a bay of His Majesty's dominions within the meaning 

 of the Convention. 



185^-66. All debate ceased during this period. The reciprocity 

 treaty was then in operation. 



