BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 285 



today, we must go back to the year 1783 when the treaty was made 

 at Paris. At that time provision was made for the share that the 

 Americans, the 13 colonies, (as their independence was then recog- 

 nized) should have in those fisheries. I will briefly read what they 

 were from the treaty made at Paris after the revolutionary war: 



" It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue 

 to enjoy, unmolested, the right to take fish of every kind on the 

 Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea where the 

 inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish; and 

 also, that the inhabitants of the United States shall have the liberty 

 to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland 

 as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on 

 that Island), and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of 

 His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the Amer- 

 ican fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the un- 

 settled bays, harbours and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands 

 and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; but so 

 soon as the same, or either of them, shall be settled, it shall not be 

 lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement, 

 without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, 

 proprietors or possessors of the ground." 



The only deprivation that they sustained then was the right to 

 cure their fish on these parts of our coasts that were inhabited ; where 

 settlement sprang up that right ceased. In all other particulars they 

 had equal rights with the provinces to share in the fishing. 



In this treaty there was no three-mile limit. There was no head- 

 land question. There was no refusal to trade. They could come in 

 and trade with the people just as much as they liked. That lasted 

 until the war of 1812. It continued down for 35 years, and then a 

 treaty was made. In that treaty no allusion whatever was made to 

 the Fisheries question; the Americans believing that their rights con- 

 tinued as under the former treaty, frequented the fishing grounds, 

 and for a time enjoyed the privileges of them. England subsequently 

 intervened, and refused them the right. Negotiations took place, 

 with the result that the treaty of 1818 was agreed upon. Now, in 

 order to understand the question, just go back to 1818 and consider 

 the condition of things. England in 1818 was relieved from any 

 European embarrassment. Napoleon was a prisoner at St. Helena, 

 and England was all-powerful at sea and on land, having conquered 

 all the enemies that had for a quarter of a century been worrying her. 

 At the time of the treaty of 1818, what were the conditions of the 

 provinces, and the then emancipated colonies of the United States? 

 American vessels entering the provincial ports were liable to confisca- 

 tion. Provincial vessels entering the ports of the United States were 

 liable to confiscation. No trade existed between them. The law 

 passed the other day by Congress at Washington, in a state of irrita- 

 tion, the Non-Intercourse Act, was mild in its character compared 

 with the condition of things which existed in 1818 when this Treaty 

 was made. Great Britain did not permit pronvincial vessels to carry 

 trade to the United States, nor did she allow American vessels to 

 trade with the provinces; yet hon. gentlemen would seem to justify 

 the application of the Treaty of that day to the year 1888, when the 



