356 MISCELLANEOUS 



in the waters of Newfoundland except Newfoundland men to whom 

 the fish unquestionably belonged by every right and. act of justice. 

 Any attempt by the Newfoundland Government to enforce the Bait 

 Act against Americans brought us face to face with the fact that 

 everybody but Newfoundland men may profit from the fishery of 

 their own land, at their own doors. Further, given that all the fore- 

 going contentions be not sustained, the question as to whether or not 

 the Treaty of 1818 empowers the Newfoundland Government in its 

 present course, or, rather, the question as to what that Treaty means, 

 is not within the jurisdiction of the magistrate, but must be left to a 

 higher tribunal for interpretation. 



Kent, K. C., replied, arguing that the right given by treaty only 

 extends to bond fide inhabitants and citizens of the United States. 

 He claimed that the magistrate had full power to investigate and de- 

 termine whether the accused had violated the law, and, if so, to inflict 

 punishment. 



Both addresses, while brief, were argued with considerable force, 

 and apparently listened to with marked attention by the presiding 

 magistrate. 



At the conclusion of addresses by counsel, the magistrate proceeded 

 to read his decision, a decision evidently prepared with care, long 

 before the trial began, a decision said to have been prepared for him 

 by the Crown, and for those reasons calculated to bring law and jus- 

 tice into contempt, disrepute, and ridicule. The decision intimated 

 that, upon questions of law, a higher tribunal would pronounce, but 

 as to the guilt of accused in violating the Bait Act, Magistrate March 

 had no doubt. He thereupon pronounced sentence of a five hundred 

 dollar fine, or three months' imprisonment, upon each of the accused. 

 In presenting his decision, the magistrate even read the words: 

 " Given under my hand and seal, this 16th day of November, 1906." 



The whole proceeding was so ludicrous, so entirely free from ju- 

 dicial decorum, so foreign to decency and justice, and so strongly 

 savouring of comic opera, that the small audience was not slow in 

 manifesting its disgust and contempt for such manifestations of 

 balderdash and tomfoolery, furnished under the covering of a court 

 house and by virtue of legal process. 



Immediately after sentence had been delivered, two of the best- 

 known and most respectable residents of Bay of Islands voluntarily 

 offered bonds for the release of the accused, and the names of James 

 H. Baggs and Maurice E. Boland were accepted by the magistrate* to 

 this end. 



Crane and Dubois have gone back to the work of catching herring 

 and earning food and comforts for their families, which the Govern- 

 ment, by its policy of stupidity, had sought to prevent. The circum- 

 stances surrounding the trial of those two unfortunate fishermen, and 

 some comparisons as to the application of law and justice, as admin- 

 istered under the present Governmental regime in this locality, must 

 remain for another writing. Evidence accumulates daily, emphasiz- 

 ing the fact that officialism is made subject to law, and that men paid 

 with public taxes for the performance of public services, exceed their 

 duties on all conceivable occasions, and continuously " play such 

 fantastic tricks before high heaven as makes the angels weep." 



Bay of Islands, November 16, 190G. 



