1076 NOETH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



These treaties were made in 1713 and 1763 respectively ; and this 

 Tribunal is now entirely familiar with the fact that by the third 

 article of the treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great 

 Britain, the inhabitants of the United States were to enjoy co-ex- 

 tensively with the subjects of Great Britain the right to fish on all 

 the coasts, bays, creeks, and harbours of His Britannic Majesty's 

 possessions in the North Atlantic Ocean. 



The provisions of this treaty of 1783 would seem, alone, to be suffi- 

 cient to establish that, as against the inhabitants of the United States, 

 in respect of the fisheries, Great Britain, in 1783, and ever afterward, 

 did not pretend to assert exclusive jurisdiction over any part of the 

 high seas. 



The nature of the rejected proposal of the Plenipotentiaries for 

 Great Britain, to which I have called attention in these negotiations 

 for the treaty of 1783, will be recalled by the Tribunal. 



As to whether or not Great Britain was making broad assertions 

 of jurisdiction over the seas adjacent to its possessions in the North 

 Atlantic, against the inhabitants of the United States, I respectfully 

 refer the Tribunal to four authorities, who, I submit, should and do 

 settle this question. They are: First, Sir Charles Russell, after- 

 wards Lord Russell, Chief Justice of England ; Second, Lord Castle- 

 reagh, when he was Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 

 of Great Britain ; Third, Mr. George Canning, when he was Princi- 

 pal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Great Britain; and 

 Fourth, Lord Bathurst, when one of the Principal Secretaries of 

 State in the Foreign Office of Great Britain. 



Reading from the Argument of Sir Charles Russell, before the 

 Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris to determine questions arising be- 

 tween the United States and Great Britain concerning the 

 648 property rights in the fur seals in the Behring Sea, as reported 

 in vol. XIII of the American reprint of the proceedings, on 

 p. 315, will be found this statement : 



"In the first instance, let me point out that so far as any special 

 rights were conceded by France "- 



Sir Charles Russell was here speaking of these very treaties that I 

 am now concerned with, of 1713 and 1763 



" I have told the Tribunal there were such they were conceded 

 by Treaty. So as regards Spain ; 



That refers to the treaty of 1763 



" but those Treaties only bound Spain and only bound France, and 

 would not have interfered one iota with the right of any other nation 

 over the area affected by them." 



Then, referring to the treaty of 1783, between the United States 

 and Great Britain, he said, on p. 317 of the same volume: 



