1182 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



these matters can be amicably adjusted, you both concur in the 

 opinion that under the Treaty of 1818 our citizens had the unques- 

 tioned right of fishing on the Southern and Western shore of the 

 Island of Newfoundland, lying between the Islands of Ramea on the 

 south and the Island of Quiperon on the north, and of entering upon 

 any unoccupied lands upon the shore of said island between Cape 

 Ray and said Island of Ramea, for the purpose of drying and curing 

 fish ; and also of fishing upon the shores of the Magdalen Islands ; and 

 with regard to all the rest of the Island of Newfoundland, and the 

 other islands and mainland of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the 

 English Government, so far as they have not conceded it to the 

 French, have the exclusive right of fishing in all the waters adjacent 

 to such islands or mainland and within three marine miles of the 

 shore ; but as for those waters in the several bays and harbours which 

 are more than three marine miles from the shore of such bay or 

 harbour upon either side, and within three marine miles of a straight 

 line drawn from one headland to the other of such bay or harbour, 

 that you as the Representative of the United States conceived that 

 our fishermen have the right under the Treaty to fish therein, but the 

 British Government having held that by a true construction of the 

 Treaty such right belonged exclusively to British subjects; and as 

 those waters were thus in dispute between the two nations, you re- 

 spectively advised the citizens and subjects of both countries not to 

 attempt to exercise any right that either claimed within the disputed 

 waters until this disputed right could be adjusted by amicable nego- 

 tiation." 



I desire to emphasize one clause 'in that letter : 



"but as for those waters in the several bays and harbours which 

 are more than three marine miles from the shore of such bay or 

 harbour upon either side, and within three marine miles of a straight 

 line drawn from one headland to the other of such bay or harbour, 

 that you as the Representative of the United States conceived that 

 our fishermen have the right under the Treaty to fish therein." 



That was the instruction of the Executive of the United States 

 to his Secretary of State; and the Secretary of State of the United 

 States, when acting in an executive capacity, cannot overrule the 

 President of "the United States, because he derives his sole authority 

 from the fact that he represents the President. 



It further appears, and this is what makes this letter important 

 that this very letter from President Fillmore to Daniel Webster was 

 forwarded by the British Minister to the British Government. That 

 fact appears, if the Tribunal please, from a note from Mr. Cramp- 

 ton, the British Minister in Washington, to the Earl of 

 713 Malmesbury, then Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State 

 for Foreign Affairs, to be found in the British Appendix, at 

 p. 157: 



"With regard to the suggestion contained in the letter of the 

 President to Mr. Webster, a copy of which I had the honour to in- 

 close in my despatch No. 306 of the 26th ultimo, that Mr. Webster 



