DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. G21 



concerns our pending serious differences with the British Govern- 

 ment it is important to realise what constitutes an American vessel 

 thus capable of enlarging the area from which free fish can be entered 

 at out ports. Congress, notably by the enactment of 5th July. 1884, 

 has committed to the head of this department the supervision of the 

 commercial marine, and merchant seamen of the United States, and 

 of the decision of all questions relating to the issue of register?, 

 enrolments, and licences of vessels, and to the preservation of those 

 documents. Whether or not a private vessel, claiming to be Ameri- 

 can, is American, and entitled to carry and display that flag, depends 

 solely on the character of the ship's papers that it carries by the 

 permission of Congress, given under the attestation of this depart- 

 ment. The only question is this : Has the vessel conformed to the laws, 

 not of a foreign country, but of the United States? In the decision 

 of that question her papers must be primd facie evidence against all 

 the world. These considerations are elementary, but they are im- 

 portant now as defining what are "American fisheries," whose prod- 

 ucts are in our ports exempt from customs taxes. 



The section of our law which authorises a vessel, licensed for carry- 

 ing on fishery, to " touch and trade at any foreign port " is not a 

 modern contrivance for modern exigencies, as Canadian local officials 

 intimate, but has been on our statute-book since 1793. As literally 

 reproduced in section 4364 of the Revised Statutes, it gives the per- 

 mission of this department to any vessel, so licensed for carrying on 

 the fisheries of the United States, to enter British or other foreign 

 ports, as a commercial vessel, and to there enjoy the rights and 

 privileges accorded to vessels of the United States sailing " foreign " 

 under a register, and not engaged in the fisheries. The permission 

 thus given to fishing vessels to " touch and trade " has been under- 

 stood by this department for nearly 100 years as conferring upon the 

 vessel a right to land, and to receive on board a cargo of merchandise, 

 in the same manner as if she w r ere not engaged in the fisheries. On 

 the return of the vessel to the United States, she is required to make 

 regular entry, and to be in all respects subject to the regulations 

 prescribed for vessels arriving from foreign ports. 



MEDIEVAL RESTRICTIONS ON FREE NAVIGATION. 



The stipulations of the treaty of 1815 only applied in our favour 

 to British territories in Europe. If they were applicable now to 

 British territories in America the present differences in British North 

 America should not exist, for the first article of that convention de- 

 clares that " the inhabitants of the two countries, respectively, shall 

 have liberty, freely and securely,, to come with their ships and cargoes 

 to all such places, ports and rivers, in the territories aforesaid, to 

 which other foreigners are permitted to come, to enter into the same, 

 and to remain and reside in any parts of the said territories, 

 respectively." 



The second article stipulates that, as to " the intercourse " between 

 the United States and British possessions in North America, "each 

 party shall remain in the complete possession of its rights." 



In 1827, when the treaty of 1815 was extended for an indefinite 

 time, the United States struggled in vain with England for a more 

 liberal agreement, or a more liberal interpretation of that of 1815, 

 but could obtain neither. 



