DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 431 



III. 



It is proposed next to consider the value of the advantages which 

 the United States derive from the provisions of Article XVII. This 

 will be done in the light of the principles already laid do\vn, which, 

 it is trusted, have been established to the satisfaction of the Commis- 

 sioners. 



The only material concession is that of fishing within British terri- 

 torial waters over which jurisdiction exists to such an extent as to 

 authorize the exclusion of the rest of mankind. Such jurisdiction 

 only exists within three miles from low-water mark, both on the 

 shores of the sea and within bays less than six miles wide between 

 their headlands, for all bays and gulfs of larger size are parts of the 

 open ocean ; and whatever lies beyond is the gift of God to all, inca- 

 pable of being monopolized by any kingdom, or state, or people. 



The necessity of reiterating and emphasizing these positions arises 

 from the surprising circumstance that the Case of Her Majesty's 

 Government throughout completely and studiously ignores any such 

 distinction. " From the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence inclusive," over " an area of many thousands of square miles," 

 it claims the whole as British property (p. 18). This is not done, 

 indeed, in formal and explicit terms; if it had been, the pretension 

 would have been more easily refuted, or rather its extravagance would 

 have refuted itself. But all the assertions as to value, and all the 

 statistics of the case, though vague and indefinite, nevertheless are 

 based constantly upon this untenable and long since exploded theory. 

 The affirmative lies upon Her Majesty's Government to show the 

 value to American fishermen of the inshore fisheries as separated and 

 distinguished from those of the deep sea; but this distinction the 

 British Case nowhere attempts to draw. The United States insist 

 that the true issue cannot be evaded thus; and that the party claiming 

 compensation is bound, by every principle of law, equity, and justice, 

 to show, with some degree of definiteness and precision, wherein con- 

 sist the privileges which are made the foundation of an enormous 

 pecuniary demand. 



(1.) The fisheries pursued by the United States fishermen in the 

 waters adjacent to the British provinces on the Atlantic coast are the 

 halibut and cod fishery, and the mackerel and herring fishery. The 

 halibut and cod fisheries include hake, haddock, cusk, and pollack. 

 These fish are caught exclusively on the banks, far beyond the juris- 

 diction of any nation. The cod-fishery, therefore, is solely a deep-sea 

 fishery, and not a subject within the cognisance of this Commission. 

 This appears even by the inspection of the maps attached to the 

 British Case, highly colored and partial as those are believed to be, 

 they having been drawn and marked without any discrimination 

 between territorial waters and the open sea. Moreover, it will appear 

 in evidence, conclusively, that there is substantially no inshore cod- 

 fishing done by the Americans. 



Nor do they land on the shores to dry their nets or cure their fish. 

 These customs belonged to the primitive mode of catching codfish 

 practised by former generations of fishermen, and have been disused 

 for many years past. Codfish are now salted for temporary preser- 

 vation on shipboard, but are cured in large establishments at home 

 by fish packers and curers. who make this a separate business, and to 

 whom the fish are sold from the vessels in a green state. 



