714 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



No. 240. 1888, April 16: Mr. W. L. Putmarfs Review of "The 

 Fisheries Negotiations Historical and Explanatory." Printed as 

 Appendix E to the Report of the Minority of the Committee of 

 the United States Senate on Foreign Relations." 



THE PENDING TREATY. 



Review of the Fisheries Negotiations by W. L. Putnam Historical 

 .and Explanatory from the beginning of the Controversy to the 

 present time What the Treaty undertakes to do Hostile Criti- 

 cism met. 



We give below a valuable review of " The Fisheries Negotiations 

 Historical and Explanatory," by the Hon. William L. Putnam, of 

 the commissioners who framed the pending treaty. The paper was 

 prepared for the Portland Fraternity Club and read at a recent meet- 

 ing. It is an important contribution to the present discussion, and 

 meets adverse criticisms which have been made upon the work of the 

 commission. 



Concerning the provisions of the convention of 1818, that our fish- 

 ermen may enter the bays or harbors of Her Majesty's dominions in 

 Newfoundland and eastern Canada "for the purposes of 

 428 shelter and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood 

 and of obtaining water, and for no other purposes whatever," 

 and are liable to "such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent 

 their taking, drying, or curing fish therein, or in any other manner 

 whatever abusing the privileges" reserved to them, confusion has 

 arisen in Canada and also in the United States on the Canadian side 

 by converting this limitation of a guarantied privilege into a uni- 

 versal one, and on our side by overlooking the indubitable fact that 

 the practice of nations recognizes a broad line between fishing vessels 

 and ordinary merchant vessels, granting to each class privileges not 

 possessed by the other. From a time at least as early as A. D. 1836 

 to the present claim of Nova Scotia, and afterwards of Canada, has 

 been inflexible, that a fishing vessel is sui generis, and, if foreign, has 

 no privileges within British bays and harbors, except those spe- 

 cifically authorised by some law of Great Britain or of her dominions, 

 or by treaty, or by the strictest rules of humanity; though at times 

 this claim has lain dormant in part, and Great Britain herself has not 

 quite countenanced its practical exercise to its full extent. During 

 all this period this construction, although often complained of by the 

 United States, never has been practically overthrown by us in any 

 particular. 



Very soon after the ratification of the convention of 1818 the 

 British Parliament passed the statute, chapter 38, George III, which 

 condemned to forfeiture vessels of the United States, and of all other 

 nations foreign to Great Britain, fishing or " preparing to fish " 

 within the prohibited waters. These words " preparing to fish " 

 found in this early act have been the cause of many troubles, and are 

 susceptible of a variety of construction. They have been found in 

 every provincial and Dominion statute relating to this matter passed 

 at different periods, four or five in all; and they have received the 



Printed Appendix Document No. 241, p. 451. 



