780 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



This question is answered by the fact that we renounced in 1818 

 the best part of the fisheries that were of the fruits of the war for 

 independence in order to make the residue a permanent right ; and in 

 1854 and 1871 we agreed to pay heavily for a temporary suspension 

 of the restrictions and limitations of the treaty of 1818. 



We have made four fisheries treaties with Great Britain, in 1783, 

 1818, 1854, and 1871, and in none of them has any commercial 

 privilege been secured to our fishermen. No serious effort has been 

 made to secure such privileges prior to the negotiation now before 

 the Senate. All that we have heretofore secured to our fishermen 

 has been the privilege of inshore fishing, of curing and drying fish 

 on certain parts of the British coasts, more or less restricted and 

 changed in each successive treaty, and the right to buy wood, obtain 

 water, make repairs, and find shelter. 



Now, we find, according to the testimony of everybody concerned, 

 and the thoroughly considered report of our Committee on Foreign 

 Relations, made after a searching investigation conducted upon our 

 coasts, and upon the testimony of experts laid before the Senate, that 

 the inshore fisheries, for which we have paid and suffered so much, 

 are of no value to us, and that the privilege of purchasing bait from 

 the Canadians is an injury to our fishing interests rather than a 

 benefit. 



These declarations, which were true, show that many of the con- 

 tentions and strifes we have had over this subject, for seventy years, 

 have been about a claim of rights and privileges that are no longer 

 of any advantage to us. 



They prove that we need only such advantages, or privileges, for 

 our fishermen on the Canadian coasts as are enjoyed by our merchant 

 vessels, and that these are not very important to them. 



Purse-seining has revolutionized the mackerel fishery almost en- 

 tirely, and has largely affected the herring fishery, and has given to 

 our fishermen great advantages in " the catch." But Canadian capi- 

 tal and energy will not long permit us to do all the purse or deep- 

 water seining. 



The freezing of fish on shipboard, so as to get them fresh to our 

 markets, is of recent date, but is a very important change in the 

 fishing business. In this the Canadians have no greater advantages 

 than our fishermen. 



These two improvements in the fishing business, with the added 

 power of steam, which has been applied to sea navigation since 1818, 

 have produced the revolution in these pursuits which renders it more 

 convenient to have commercial rights for some of our fishing vessels, 

 but has removed the necessity to have fishing privileges within three 

 miles of any of the coasts or in the bays of the British possessions 

 that are not classed as great arms of the sea. 



The history of the controversies that have found a final solution in 

 the treaty now before the Senate, and the explanation of the bearing 

 of the treaty upon those questions, are so clearly and ably stated by 

 Hon. W- L. Putnam, in a letter dated April 16, 1888, that we append 

 it to this report (Appendix E). 



Mr. Putnam being one of our plenipotentiaries who negotiated this 

 treaty, his review of the diplomatic and legislative history is an 

 important exposition of the merits of this subject. 



