8 COUNTER CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



evidence; and, inasmuch as the United States denies the accuracy 

 of the facts thus assumed and asserted, it becomes necessary to call 

 attention to this failure of proof on the part of Great Britain. 



One of the assertions of fact referred to, the accuracy of which the 

 United States calls into question and which requires particular atten- 

 tion here, is as follows: 



From 1783 to 1878 British and Colonial laws, regulative of the 

 fisheries, were enforced against British and American fishermen alike; 

 without any contention being raised that American fishermen were 

 exempt from their operation, or that, for their control, the concur- 

 rence of the United States was necessary. 



Nowhere in the British Case is any attempt made to support this 

 statement by evidence covering any portion of the stated period 

 until after the treaty of 1818 was supplemented by the treaty of 

 1854, with the single exception of the citation of the Act of Parlia- 

 ment of June 14, 1819, which is referred to as an Act passed " for 

 the express purpose of providing for the making of such regulations 

 as might be rendered necessary by the access of United States fisher- 

 men to the shore fisheries." But it will be observed that the British 

 Case very properly refrains from claiming that any regulations, 

 which were enforced against the American fishermen or even applied 

 to them, were ever adopted under this Act; and the fact is, as has 

 already been shown in the Case of the United States in discussing 

 the Orders in Council adopted under this Act, that the only regu- 

 lations ever promulgated under its authority were directed not 

 against American fishermen, but against British subjects. 6 



It is evident, therefore, that the Act of Parliament of 1819, which, 

 as above stated, is the only evidence cited in support of the British 

 contention during the period referred to, falls far short of estab- 

 lishing the statement that British laws " relative to the American 

 fisheries, were enforced against British and American fishermen 

 alike." 



So far as appears from the British Case, the only other British or 

 Colonial Act relating to the fisheries on the treaty coasts, passed sub- 

 sequent to the date of the treaty of 1818, during the period under 

 consideration, was the Act of the British Parliament passed June 3, 

 1824 (5 Geo. IV, Cap. 51) c , and the only provision in this Act which 



British Case, p. 24. 6 U. S. Case, pp. 69-75. c British Case Appendix, p. 567. 



