DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 543 



objects wholly beyond the purview, scope and intent of the Treaty," 

 and to " give to it an effect never contemplated." 



Mr. Bayard suggests that the possession by a fishing vessel of a 

 permit to " touch and trade " should give her a right to enter Ca- 

 nadian ports, for other than the purposes named in the Treaty, or, 

 in other words, should give her perfect immunity from its provi- 

 sions. 



This must amount to a practical repeal of the Treaty, because it 

 would enable a United States' Collector of Customs by issuing a 

 license originally intended for purposes of domestic customs regula- 

 tion to give exemption from the Treaty to every United States' 

 fishing vessel. The observation that similar vessels under the British 

 flag have the right to enter the ports of the United States for the 

 purchase of supplies, loses its force when it is remembered that the 

 Convention of 1818 contained no restrictions on British vessels, and 

 no renunciation of any privileges in regard to them. 



Mr. Bayard states that in the proceedings prior to the Treaty of 

 1818 the British Commissioners proposed that United States' fishing 

 vessels should be excluded " from carrying also merchandize," but 

 that their proposition " being resisted by the American negotiators, 

 was abondoned " ; and goes on to say : " this fact would seem clearly 

 to indicate that the business of fishing did not then, and does not 

 now, disqualify vessels from also trading in the regular ports of 

 entry." A reference to the proceedings alluded to will show that 

 the proposition mentioned related only to United States vessels visit- 

 ing those portions of the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland on 

 which the United States' fishermen had been granted the right to 

 fish and to land for drying and curing fish, and the rejection of the 

 proposal can at the utmost be supposed only to indicate that the 

 liberty to carry merchandize might exist without objection in rela- 

 tion to these coasts, and is no ground for supposing that the right 

 extends to the regular ports of entry, against the express words of 

 the Treaty. 



The proposition of the British negotiators was to append to Art. 1 

 the following words : " It is therefore well understood that the liberty 

 of taking, drying and curing fish, granted in the preceding part of 

 this Article, shall not be construed to extend to any privilege of 

 carrying on trade with any of His Britannic Majesty's subjects resid- 

 ing within the limits hereinbefore assigned for the use of the fisher- 

 men of the United States." 



It was also proposed to limit them to having on board such goods 

 as might " be necessary for the prosecution of the fishery or the sup- 

 port of the fishermen while engaged therein, or in the prosecution of 

 their voyages to and from the fishing grounds." 



To this the American negotiators objected on the ground that the 

 search for contraband goods and the liability to seizure for having 

 them in possession would expose the fishermen to endless vexation, 

 and in consequence the proposal was abandoned. It is apparent, 

 therefore, that this proviso in no way referred to the bays or har- 

 bours outside of the limits assigned to the American fishermen, from 

 which bays and harbours it was agreed, both before and after this 

 proposition was discussed, that United States' fishing vessels were to 

 be excluded for all purposes except than for shelter and repairs and 

 purchasing wood and obtaining water. 



