498 MISCELLANEOUS 



in 1783, Great Britain entered into another treaty with France, known 

 as the Treaty of Versailles, under which a change was made in respect 

 to the localities in which the French might exercise a right of fishery, 

 and in the declaration of His Britannic Majesty in respect to this 

 Treaty of Versailles it was clearly stipulated that the French should 

 not be interrupted in any manner by competition in the enjoyment 

 of their fishery. The outer coast line referred to in the two treaties 

 that I have mentioned is precisely that upon which fishing privi- 

 leges were granted by His Britannic Majesty to the United States 

 of America in 1818. But there is no question whatever but that the 

 French exercise exclusive rights of fishery in many of the bays, har- 

 bours, and creeks which form the inner coast line. Following upon 

 the declaration of the Treaty of Versailles they entered into those 

 bays, harbours, and creeks and held possession of them to the exclu- 

 sion of all parties up to two years ago, when they relinquished what 

 they termed their rights for a consideration. Is it not probable that 

 the Treaty of 1818 was worded as it is in order to avoid infringe- 

 ment of those French treaty rights and concessions? 



May not this be the explanation of the distinction so difficult 

 otherwise to understand made between the south coast, with the 

 right to enter baj^s, harbours, and creeks to dry fish, and the western 

 and northern coasts, with no such rights? Had it been otherwise, 

 would not the framers of the Treaty of 1818 have included them 

 together in one clause? They were unable to do this, it seems to 

 me, because the British Government, having already contracted not 

 to allow competition with the French on the western and northern 

 coasts by British subjects, had no power to allow it to the inhabitants 

 of the United States. They could give the right of fishing on the 

 open coast, but could not grant it in the bays, harbours, and creeks 

 where the French exercised their fishing, and where the fishery area 

 being limited they would certainly have been interfering with the 

 French, who claimed and exercised with the consent of the British 

 Government a monopoly of the fishing therein. I have seen in one 

 of the leading London reviews that an able writer has declared that 

 but for a map which was put in by the Newfoundland government, 

 during the proceedings of the Halifax Conference in 1876, my read- 

 ing of the treaty might, perhaps, have stood. My answer to that is 

 that if the Treaty of 1818 was expressly worded so as to exclude the 

 Americans from the bays, harbours, and creeks of the west coast, 

 no implied admission by the Newfoundland government at the Hali- 

 fax Commission would have any effect, but the treaty would have 

 to be rigidly construed in relation to the French rights. Viewed 

 historically, it seems to me that the Americans were intentionally 

 excluded from the bays, harbours, and creeks of the west coast, and 

 that they never had any rights of fishing in either Bonne Bay, Bay 

 of Islands, or Bay of St. George. 



In order to discover what the rights of United States citizens under 

 the Treaty of 1818 are, it may be useful to have reference to anterior 

 records. Before the Revolution the inhabitants of all the British 

 colonies in North America possessed, as a common right, the right of 

 fishing on all the coasts in British North America. At the end of 

 the Revolution and by the Treaty of Peace of 1783, which adjusted 

 the boundaries between the dominions of the two powers, it was 

 " agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy 



