40 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



(British Case App., p. 84). They acted in accordance with these in- 

 structions, and the treaty specifies the limits within which alone they 

 have a right of fishing. Indeed in a later part of his letter Mr. Rush 

 admits the principle for which Great Britain contends : namely, that 

 the three miles must be measured from the entrance to the bay rather 

 than from the shore of the bay, and he thus leaves the question not 

 one between headlands and no headlands, but one merely as to the 

 cases in which lines between headlands ought, and those in which 

 they ought not, to be drawn. That is a very substantial admission. 

 It is quite inconsistent with the United States interpretation of the 

 treaty, which Mr. Rush is supposed to have approved. 



USER PRIOR TO 1836. 



In the Case of the United States Government (p. 76) it is claimed 

 that Great Britain did not dispute the right freely asserted and exer- 

 cised at that time (that is, between 1818 and 1836) by the American 

 fishermen of fishing in any of the bays along the coast referred to, 

 provided that such fishery was not carried on within three marine 

 miles of the shore. 



His Majesty's Government do certainly dispute the fact 

 47 that American fishermen freely asserted or exercised the right 

 to fish in bays before 1836, and they refer to the documents 

 in the appendix to show that there was little, if any, fishing in the 

 bays before that time. The importance of the fisheries in the colo- 

 nial bays grew up about 1836, when the mackerel for some reason 

 ceased to frequent the American shores. The effect was to deprive 

 the American mackerel fishers of their trade and to drive them to 

 the colonial waters where mackerel were in abundance. 



These facts are clearly stated by Representative Tuck, in his speech 

 in Congress to which reference has already been made. It will 

 be convenient to cite again a passage from that speech (British 

 Case, p. 97) : 



I do not think it generally known that the whole difficulty about 

 the fisheries is about our right to take mackerel. The cod fishing 

 privileges are adequate already 



In 1818 we took no mackerel on the coasts of the British posses- 

 sions, and there was no reason to anticipate that we should ever 

 have occasion to do so. Mackerel were then found as abundantly 

 on the coast of New England as anywhere in the World, and it 

 was not till years after this that this beautiful fish, in a great degree, 

 left our waters. The mackerel on the provincial coasts has prin- 

 cipally grown up since 1838, and no vessel was ever licensed for that 

 business in the United States since 1838. The Commissioners of 

 1818 had no other business but to protect the cod fishery; and this 

 they did in a manner generally satisfactory to those most interested^ 



