DESPATCHES, REPOKTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 443 



Washington treaty no such rights or privileges are conceded to the 

 United States. 



******* 



The Commission retired to deliberate, and on their return the 

 President read the following decision: 



The Commission having considered the motion submitted by the Agent of the 

 United States at the conference held on the 1st instant, decided 



That it is not within the competence of this tribunal to award compensation 

 for commercial intercourse between the two countries, nor for the purchasing 

 bait, ice, supplies, &c., &c. nor for the permission to transship cargoes in British 

 waters. 



SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT. Mr. President, as this Commission has 

 been unanimous on this question, I desire, with the permission 

 264 of my colleagues, but without committing them to the same 

 line of argument which has convinced myself, to state the 

 grounds upon which I feel it my duty to acquiesce in the decision. 

 I listened with very great pleasure to the extremely able arguments 

 made on both sides, and I find that the effect of the motion, and of 

 the argument which has been given upon it, is to limit the power of 

 this tribunal to certain specified points. This definition is undoubt- 

 edly important in its consequences. It eliminates from the considera- 

 tion of the Commission an important part of the case submitted on 

 behalf of Her Majesty's Government; and this is undoubtedly the 

 case so far as this part forms a direct claim for compensation ; but, at 

 the same time, it has the further important effect that it defines and 

 limits the rights conceded to the citizens of the United States under 

 the Treaty of Washington. Now, I have not been insensible to the 

 importance of the considerations that have been addressed to us by 

 the counsel for the Crown in reference .to the inconvenience that may 

 arise from the decision at which this tribunal has arrived. I can 

 forsee that, under certain circumstances, those inconveniences may 

 become exceedingly great, but I cannot resist the position taken by 

 the counsel of the United States in stating that, if such inconveniences 

 arise, they are matters which properly fall within the control and 

 judgment of the two governments, and not within that of this Com- 

 mission. On the other hand, I cannot fail to see that, while this is 

 admitted, a remote and contingent inconvenience, a very important 

 difficulty, and one of a very serious character, would arise if from 

 any cause this Commission were to exceed the powers which are given 

 to the Commissioners under the Treaty of Washington. 



The difficulty would at once arise that any award whatever which 

 it made, be it good or bad, be it favourable to the one party or to the 

 other, would have been vitiated by our having acted ultra vires. I 

 do not find, either, that there would be any ready escape from such 

 a position. The treaty affords no machinery by which this question 

 in regard to the fisheries can be adjudicated upon if this Commission 

 should, from any unfortunate cause, be allowed to lapse; therefore, 

 with regard to the two inconveniences in question, the one which 

 strikes at the root of the whole treaty is that which ought to weigh 

 with me, if I were placed in such a position as to be obliged to weigh 

 such inconveniences; but, as I shall state before I conclude, there 

 are other and stronger considerations present to my mind. I have 

 in common with my colleagues entered into a solemn obligation to 

 decide judicially upon all questions coming before this tribunal, and 



