DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 643 



is entitled to stand on such an interpretation. But even if the treaty 

 of 1818 covers (which it does not) every American fisherman enter- 

 ing a Canadian harbour, on whatever sea or ocean he may cast a line 

 or draw a seine, the Canadian statutes do not preserve and enforce 

 the treaty. They destroy it, so far as the privileges are concerned 

 that are given to American fishermen by the treaty. 



First of all in order of time and authority is the Imperial legisla- 

 tion at London in 1819 to enforce the treaty of the previous year. 

 After forbidding everyone, excepting British subjects and American 

 citizens (who could do so within defined limits), to fish, dry, or cure 

 fish anywhere within three miles of British coasts in America, that 

 law of 1819 punishes by forfeiture any offending vessel, and all the 

 articles on board. Then comes this: 



That if any person or persons, upon requisition made, by the governor of 

 Newfoundland, or the person exercising the office of governor, or by any gov- 

 ernor or person exercising the office of governor, in any other parts of His 

 Majesty's dominions in America, as aforesaid, or by any officer or officers acting 

 under such governor or person exercising the office of governor, in the execution 

 of any orders or instructions from His Majesty in Council, shall refuse to depart 

 from such bays or harbours; or if any person or persons shall refuse or neg- 

 lect to conform to any regulations or directions which shall be made or given 

 for the execution of any of the purposes of this Act, every such person so 

 refusing or otherwise offending against this Act shall forfeit the sum of 200, 

 to be recovered, &c. 



It will be seen that not forfeiture, but a fine to be recovered by a 

 suit, is inflicted for refusing or neglecting to depart on notice. The 

 statutes of Canada are not, as the Canadian Privy Council asserted 

 (p. 32), "expressed in almost the same language*' as the foregoing 

 Imperial statute. 



The Prince Edward Island's enactment of 1844 gives the key-note 

 of Canadian enactments. It declares: 



Whereas by the convention (made between His late Majesty King George 

 the Third and the United States of America, signed at London on the twentieth 

 day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 

 eighteen), and the statute (made and passed in the Parliament of Great 

 Britain in the fifty-ninth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the 

 Third,) all foreign ships, vessels or boats, or any ship, vessel or boat, other 

 than such as shall be navigated according to the laws of the United Kingdom 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, found fishing, or to have been fishing, or prepar- 

 ing to fish, within certain distances of any coast, bays, creeks or harbours 

 whatever, in any part of His Majesty's dominions in America not included 

 within the limits specified in the first article of the said convention, are liable 

 to seizure; and whereas the United States did, by the said convention, re- 

 nounce for ever any liberty enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof to 

 take, dry or cure fish on or within the above mentioned limits: Provided how- 

 ever, that the American fishermen be admitted to enter such bays or harbours 

 for the purpose of shelter and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing 

 wood, and of obtaining water, and for no other purposes whatever, but under 

 such restrictions as might be necessary to prevent their taking, drying or 

 curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges 

 thereby reserved to them ; and whereas no rules or regulations have been made 

 for such purpose, and the interests of the inhabitants of this island are ma- 

 terially impaired ; and whereas the said Act does not designate the persons who 

 are to make such seizure as aforesaid, and it frequently happens that persons 

 found within the distances of the coasts aforesaid, infringing the articles of 

 the convention aforesaid, and the enactments of the statute aforesaid, on being 



taken possession of, profess to have come within said limits for the pur- 

 384 pose of shelter and repairing damages therein, or to purchase wood and 



obtain water, by which the law is evaded, and the vessels and cargors 

 escape confiscation, although the cargoes may be evidently intended to be 

 smuggled into this island, and the fishery carried on contrary to the said con- 

 vention and statute. 



