DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 749 



ish North American fishing vessels or those of any other country 

 the ordinary commercial rights, hospitalities, and humanities 

 448 that are now supposed to be nearly universal among nations 

 calling themselves civilised, unless, unhappily, they should 

 be compelled to do so in order to induce just and hospitable treat- 

 ment to the vessels of our own country. 



The thirteenth article provides that the Secretary of the Treasury 

 of the United States shall make regulations for the conspicuous ex- 

 hibition by every United States fishing vessel of its official number 

 on its bows, and that no vessel shall be entitled to the licences pro- 

 vided in the treaty which shall fail to comply with such regulations. 

 This provision on its face and taken literally applies to every fishing 

 vessel of the United States, whether it is ever to enter Canadian 

 waters or not and it is a law to the Secretary of the Treasury of 

 perpetual application. 



But assuming, however mistaken the language may have been for 

 this purpose, that it is only to apply to United States fishing vessels 

 entering Canadian ports or waters, it is bad enough, for it proceeds 

 upon the idea that vessels of the United States engaged in the occupa- 

 tion of fishing are to be put under a ban of specific apparel and 

 appearance that is not imposed upon any other vessel. 



By the article next preceding, and already commented upon, all 

 Canadian fishing vessels are entitled in our waters to all the privi- 

 leges that American fishing vessels are entitled to have in Canadian 

 waters so far as it regards fishing, at least; but they are not required 

 to be thus numbered and marked. A hundred Canadian fishing 

 vessels may anchor in the harbour of Gloucester, the great fishing 

 port of the United States, and be entitled to every right and every 

 hospitality only upon the evidence of their papers, which show their 

 nationality and that they are not pirates; but if a single American 

 fishing vessel appears in the harbour of Halifax, and under the guns 

 of Her Majesty's forts, she can not obtain any supplies, and her crew 

 may starve at anchor unless upon each bow there is the number 

 affixed by order of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United 

 States. Certainly, American fishermen and, we should hope, every 

 other American citizen would not be proud of such a distinction. 



The fourteenth article of the treaty deals with the subject of pen- 

 alties for fishing contrary to the treaty of 1818 and the first article 

 of this treaty, and thereby the United States are to agree that such 

 penalty may extend to forfeiture, etc. This is a singular provision 

 (and probably unique) to be found in a treaty between two civil- 

 ized nations, the general tenor of whose laws and the general social 

 nature of whose institutions are very nearly homogeneous. 



The article also provides for a limitation or an exception, as the 

 case may be, of the legal penalties for other violations of fishery 

 rights, three dollars a ton. 



It also provides that the proceedings shall be summary and as 

 inexpensive as practicable and that the trial shall be at the place of 

 detention the place of detention being left to the discretion of the 

 seizing authorities, for without special provision the seized vessel 

 could be taken to any port in the Dominion. 



It then provided that security for costs shall not be required of the 

 defense except when bail is offered ; that is to say, that when a vessel, 

 with all its furniture, tackle, apparel, and cargo, and its captain and 



