270 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



That there are many land-locked indentations which constitute 

 portions of the territory of the country whose coasts surround them, 

 is indisputable. It is not necessary to enter into the public law, 

 made since by general consent, which regulates that subject. No 

 doubt cases may arise where rights are claimed and resisted, which 

 are not easy of adjustment in consequence of the absence of fixed 

 principles. When such controversies arise, they must take their own 

 course of settlement. 



But, independent of these general considerations, applicable to 

 the larger bays and gulfs of the fishing region, there are others which 

 fix the meaning of iJie word ' bay,' as employed in the Convention, 

 beyond reasonable doubt or dispute, beyond all cavil, but a deter- 

 mination to resort to interest rather than to reason for the sig- 

 160 nification of a term. The Convention, by indicating the use of 

 the bays, sufficiently indicates their nature. They are for the 

 purpose of affording shelter, <&c. Now, what shelter can the storm- 

 beaten mariner find in the Bay of Fundy or in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence? Both of these seas are among the most dangerous that our 

 hardy seamen are compelled to encounter, whatever may be their pur- 

 suits, or wherever they may range the ocean. They are proverbially 

 perilous and deceitful, and the right to find shelter upon these tem- 

 pestuous waves would not be worth the paper on which it might be 

 written. 



The " Montreal Herald," indeed, in a late number, while accusing 

 the American of standing " upon any advantages they may possess," 

 cuts this Gordian knot with great ease by the discovery and annun- 

 ciation that " there is, after all, no real ground for considering this as 

 an 'insult; for the bays and straits where the British men-of-war 

 are stationed are as exclusively British as the British Channel.' " 

 Quite cool, this claim over the great highway which separates France 

 from England, twenty-one miles broad in its narrowest part. This 

 is going backward, indeed to the days of Selden, the advocate of 

 this pretension, and to the reign of Charles, who hoped to establish 

 it. The knowledge and the modesty of the editor are equally com- 

 mendable. 



The bays of the Convention are classed with harbors and creeks 

 a classification significative of the object. They are defined as bays 

 " of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions," over which the British 

 Government has jurisdiction, as it has over the land that encircles 

 them. That such was the understanding of our negotiators is ren- 

 dered clear by the terms they employ in their report upon this sub- 

 ject. They say, "it is in that point of view that the privilege of 

 entering the ports for shelter is useful," &c. Here the word " ports " 

 is used as a descriptive word, embracing both the bays and harbours 

 within which shelter may be legally sought, and shows the kind of 

 bays contemplated by our framers of the Treaty. And it is not a 

 little curious that the Legislature of Nova Scotia have applied the 

 same meaning to a similar term. An Act of that province wan 

 passed March 12, 1836, with this title : "An Act relating to the Fish- 

 eries in the Province of Nova Scotia and the Coasts and Harbours 

 thereof," which Act recognizes the Convention, and provides for its 

 execution under the authority of an Imperial statute. It declares 

 that harbours shall include bays, ports, and creeks. Nothing can 



