282 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



They renounced the right to take fish within three miles of any 

 of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of Her Britannic Majesty's 

 Dominions. Now comes the proviso to the renunciation: 



Provided, however, that American fishermen shall be admitted to enter such 

 bays or harbours for the purpose of shelter, repairing of damages therein, of 

 purchasing wood, and obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever. 



That is what is renounced. The Envoys inform you that they 

 choose to renounce the rights which were given up, and they chose 

 to do it distinctly and in detail, that it might be known what was 

 surrendered at the time. The true question is, What do they renounce 

 by the language they use ? I know that in using these terms they are 

 excluded from the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks; and the British 

 Government raise a question of construction, namely, that we cannot 

 fish within three miles of any of these bays; that we are excluded 

 to a distance of three miles, not only from the coast, but also from 

 these bays, including, in that term, Fundy and other large bays. 



But, Sir, analyze the Article a little further, and you will ascertain 

 what the terms of the exclusion are, and what they apply to. You 

 have a right to come within three marine miles of the coasts, within 

 three marine miles of the bays, and within three marine miles of the 

 harbours and creeks. What, then, is meant by the word ' bays ' ? 

 The latter part of the proviso which I have just read explains the 

 whole of it. They have a right " to enter." " To enter " what ? " To 

 enter such bays," &c., undoubtedly referring to the bays mentioned in 

 the former part of the Article the bays renounced. And for what 

 purpose have they this right to enter such bays ? Why, Sir, they have 

 a right to enter them for the purposes of shelter, and of obtaining 

 wood and water, and for the purchase of bait. All these things are 

 enumerated in the Treaty itself, and they have a right to enter all 

 such bays for such purposes that is, all the bays renounced. Now, 

 let me ask if the Bay of Fundy is a bay to enter for shelter, or for 

 wood, or water, or bait? No, Sir. And are these great open seas 

 from headland to headland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (where I 

 understand they have stretched a line, and forbid vessels to enter 

 within these headlands, and thereby excluded them from some of the 

 most important fisheries in that gulf), places where vessels are to 

 enter for the purpose of obtaining bait, and shelter, and wood, and 

 water? Sir, the term "such bays," and the uses to be made of the 

 privilege, show most clearly and distinctly what the purposes and 

 intentions were and these were not the waters renounced by the 

 term "bays." Then, in conformity with all this, we have the con- 

 temporaneous practical construction of this Treaty. These open 

 bays were all enjoyed by the fishermen of the United States from the 

 making of this Treaty, for more than twenty years, without any 

 sejious interruption or complaint, and they enjoyed this right practi- 

 cally as a construction acceded to on all hands. They were permitted 

 to fish everywhere, except within three miles of the coast, being ex- 

 cluded only from the coast and the small bays and harbours of the 

 coast. These were the bays renounced, and none others. All else 

 were left open to the fishermen. 



Now, this construction put upon the Treaty contemporaneous with 

 its execution, and its continuance for twenty years, undisturbed, 



