DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 717 



spectacles of the grander arbitration between the United States and 

 Great Britain, and of the treaty which led to it, have given out a 

 light which will shine on and on for the illumining of civilization 

 so long as the English tongue shall be spoken. Considering all the 

 great interests which those negotiators had in hand, it was not sur- 

 prising that it was deemed by them sufficient to give the fisheries a 

 temporary peace* which also they had reason to expect would become 

 permanent. It is in no sense, therefore, in a depredator}' spirit that 

 we refer to these events; but only because dry truth requires that 

 their incidental effect on the issues with which we now r have to deal 

 should be clearly stated. The protocol of the conference of the com- 

 missioners held May 4, A. D. 1871, is as follows : 



The British commissioners stated that they were prepared to discuss the* 

 question of the fisheries, either iu detail or generally, either to enter into an 

 examination of the respective rights of the two countries under the treaty of 

 1818 and the general law of nations, or to approach at once the settlement of 

 the question on a comprehensive basis. 



Our commissioners selected the latter. The result was no issues in 

 controversy concerning the fisheries were decided, and all were post- 

 poned; and a rule of negotiation was adopted for that topic, which 

 has since, justly or unjustly, given great dissatisfaction to the inter- 

 ests involved. 



It thus appears that this controversy commenced more than a half 

 century since, and during that period nothing has been determined. 

 After questions have continued so long unsettled and have been twice 

 formally postponed, it necessarily remains that it is difficult for either 

 party to press its full rights to a complete conclusion in all particu- 

 lars. Traditions become fixed on one side or the other, systems of 

 legislation accumulate which become inextricably involved with the 

 general mass and the cotemporary facts and understandings are 

 lost or assume new phases. Claims made by Great Britain, or by 

 Nova Scotia or Canada in her name, have stood so long without defi- 

 nitive reversal that they gained such strength as to be in some par- 

 ticulars quite as difficult of disturbance as though originally based 

 on sound principles and correct rules of construction. 



This was the status of these questions when the present negotiations 

 commenced; yet former administrations had not failed to give some 

 indications of the suitable methods of meeting them. In the dis- 

 patch of Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State, to Mr. Adams, then our 

 minister at London, of April 10. A. D. 1866, Mr. Seward suggested 

 a mixed commission for the folloAving purposes: 



(1) To agree upon and define by a series of lines the limits which shall 

 separate the exclusive from the common right of fishing on the coasts, and in 

 the seas adjacent, of the British North American colonies, in conformity with 

 the first article of the convention of 1818; the said lines to be regularly num- 

 bered, duly described, and also clearly marked on charts prepared in duplicate 

 for the purpose. 



(2) To agree upon and establish such regulations as may be necessary and 

 proper to secure to the fishermen of the United Sates the privilege of entering 



bays and harbors for the purpose of shelter and of repairing damages 

 430 therein, of purchasing wood and of obtaining water, and to agree upon 



and establish such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent the abuse 

 of the privilege reserved by said convention to the fishermen of the United 

 States. 



(3) To agree upon and recommend the penalties to be adjudged, and such 

 proceedings and jurisdiction as may be necessary to secure a speedy trial and 

 judgment with as little expense as possible for the violators of rights and the 

 transgressors of the limits and restrictions which may be hereby adopted. 



