730 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



waters or ports of British North America, for the status of things 

 was such, that it could not be done in the case of any American ves- 

 sel without regard to her character as a vessel engaged in fishing 

 upon the high seas or in the British territorial waters, wherein, a* 

 was provided, she might continue to fish, or to her commercial char- 

 acter. 



The right (except in the cases before stated) of the British to 

 exclude such vessels and all others of the United States from her 

 ports in British North America, as the matter stood until 1830, is 

 fully conceded, and it is also conceded that during that time the only 

 right of any vessel of the United States to enter the waters of British 

 North America depended upon the treaty of 1818 alone, and in 

 order to obtain the benefit of that treaty for such purposes, the 

 American vessel must have been a fishing vessel, and must have 

 resorted to those particular waters for some one of the purposes 

 mentioned in the treaty, and no others. 



The foregoing statement is, of course, subject to the limitation 

 implied in whatever rights might have existed by the general law 

 of nations in respect of vessels under circumstances requiring the 

 exercise of humanity, etc. It must be also remarked that at the 

 time of the conclusion of the treaty of 1818 the ports of British 

 North America were very few and far between, and that there could 

 be very little motive for American vessels either fishing or other, to 

 resort to such ports for the purposes of trade until the British 

 colonial policy should have been abandoned or very largely modified. 



The matter, then, under the treaty of 1818 was a very simple one 

 and can be restated thus : 



(1) No American vessel had any right to resort to British North American 

 ports for any commercial or other purpose, and no British North American 

 vessel had any right to resort to any port of the United States for such purposes. 



(2) But American fishing vessels had a right to resort to certain of the 

 coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks of that part of British North America de- 

 scribed in the treaty of 1818 for all purposes of fishing which they had anciently 

 enjoyed. 



(3) But American fishing vessels, and fishing vessels only, had also a right 

 to resort to all other British North American waters for the special purposes 

 named in the treaty. 



(4) The general result of this was, as to American fishing vessels, that they 

 had, on all the British North American coasts and in all her bays and harbours, 

 the right to shelter, to repair damages, and to obtain wood and water, but on 

 certain named parts of the same coasts, etc., they had not the right to take or 

 cure fish ; and 



(5) As a consequence of the situation embraced in the British laws and in 

 that treaty, the matter of resorting to British North American ports either by 

 American fishing or other vessels was entirely outside of and unaffected either 

 way by that treaty. 



From 1818 forward, until after the reciprocal arrangements of 

 1830 concerning commerce, it is not known that any serious difficul- 

 ties occurred in respect of the rights of American fishermen pursuing 

 their calling in those regions of the sea. 



Two or three instances only of seizure appear to have occurred 

 until after 1830 and none of those touched or raised the bay or head- 

 lands question. In 1835 the British Government brought to the 

 notice of our own the complaints of the Canadian authorities con- 

 cerning alleged infractions of the treaty of 1818 by our fisher- 

 men. These complaints did not involve the bay or headlands ques- 

 tion or any commercial question, and the complaints were inline- 



