424 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



contemplated by the Act of Congress to which you refer, and in ac- 

 cordance with which the Proclamation of the President is to issue. 

 I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration, Sir, 

 Your obedient servant 



HAMILTON FISH 

 The Right Honourable 



Sir EDWARD THORNTON, K. C. B. 



&c. &c. &c. 



No. 161. 1873, June SO: Letter from Sir E. Thornton to Earl 



Granville. 



No. 286. Confidential. 



WASHINGTON June 30, 1873. 



Mr LORD, With reference to my despatch No. 284 of to-day's date 

 I have the honour to state that during a visit which I paid to Mr. 

 Fish at the State Department on the 26th instant I inquired whether 

 I was to infer from the tenor of his note of the previous day that 

 American fishermen would not consider themselves bound to observe 

 in the waters of Newfoundland the restrictions and regulations of 

 police which might be established by that Colony with regard to the 

 modes and seasons of fishing. I pointed out to him that such regula- 

 tions, which were laid down with a view to the preservation of the 

 fisheries for the benefit of all parties, would be enforced quite as much 

 against British as against American fishermen, and I repeated that 

 such restrictions, if they existed, would doubtless be enforced in 

 American waters against British fishermen. I had observed that the 

 United States Commissioner recently appointed to examine into the 

 causes of the decrease of fish on the coasts of New England, had rec- 

 ommended some stringent regulations with a view to remedying the 

 evil complained of. I did not doubt that Congress would take steps 

 upon the subject, and that whatever laws might be passed would be 



enforced equally against British and American fishermen. 

 253 Mr. Fish replied that he could state confidentially his under- 

 standing that the jurisdiction gave the right of laying down 

 reasonable police regulations, and that as a matter of course such 

 regulations would be observed by all who fished in the waters in 

 question; but the permission to fish granted by the Treaty was ac- 

 companied by no restriction except so far as to define the localities 

 in which the fishing was to be carried on. The Proclamation there- 

 fore, which would be a consequence of the Treaty, ought not to con- 

 tain any restrictions, which were not indeed comprised in any of the 

 laws upon the subject except the Act of Newfoundland, nor in the 

 Protocol signed on the Tth instant. 



I have the honour to be, with the highest respect, my Lord, 

 Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, 



EDWD. THORNTON. 



The Earl GRANVILLE. K G 



&c &c &c 



