BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 525 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE HALIFAX 



COMMISSION. 



Case of Her Majesty's Government before the Fishery Commission 

 under the Treaty of Washington, of May 5, 1871. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In laying the case of Her Majesty's Government before the Com- 

 missioners, it will be desirable to commence by a brief history of the 

 fisheries question since the outbreak of the War of Independence in 

 1775. 



Before the commencement of this war all British colonists enjoyed 

 equal privileges in matters connected with fishing, but at its close, 

 and on the conclusion of peace, it became a question how far such 

 privileges should be restored to those who had separated from the 

 British Crown. The matter was very fully discussed in the negotia- 

 tions which preceded the treaty of the 3d September, 1783, and 

 though Great Britain did not deny the right of the American citizens 

 to fish on the Great Banks of Newfoundland, or in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, or elsewhere in the open sea, she denied their right to fish 

 in British waters, or to land in British territory for the purpose of 

 drying or curing their fish. A compromise was at length arrived at, 

 and it was agreed that United States fishermen should be at liberty 

 to fish on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fisher- 

 men could use, but not to dry or cure their fish on that island; and 

 they were also to be allowed to fish on the coasts, bays, and creeks 

 of other British possessions in North America, and to dry and cure 

 their fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova 

 Scotia, the Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as they should 

 remain unsettled; but so soon as any of them became settled, the 

 United States fishermen were not to be allowed to use them without 

 the previous permission of the inhabitants and proprietors of the 

 ground. 



The III. Article of the Treaty of Paris of the 3d of September, 

 1783, is as follows : 



[Here follows the Article.] 



It should, however, be observed that the rights conceded to the 

 United States fishermen under this treaty were by no means so great 

 as those which, as British subjects, they had enjoyed previous to the 

 War of Independence, for they were not to be allowed to land to dry 

 and cure their fish on any part of Newfoundland, and only in those 

 parts of Nova Scotia, the Magdalen Islands, and Labrador where no 

 British settlement had been or might be formed, expressly excluding 

 Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and other places. 



So matters stood until the war of 1812 broke out, when, of necessity, 

 the right of American citizens to fish in British waters, and to dry 

 and cure their fish on British territory, terminated. In the course 

 of the negotiations which preceded the peace of 1814, this question 

 was revived, and the alleged right of American citizens to fish and 

 cure fish within British jurisdiction was fully gone into by the 

 British and American commissioners who were assembled at Ghent 



