1232 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



that is the treaty of 1778, in which you will find a treaty of very 

 similar character to the one of 1686 that I have just referred to: 



"the Most Christian King's subjects shall not fish in the havens, 

 bays, creeks, roads, coasts or places which the said United States hold 

 or shall hereafter hold ; and in like manner the subjects, people and 

 inhabitants of the said United States shall not fish in the havens, 

 bays, creeks, roads, coasts or places which the Most Christian King 

 possesses or shall hereafter possess ; " 



If that is still too long ago, we will take one between the dates of 

 our two treaties, namely, in 1794. The British Case Appendix, p. 

 23, the second paragraph of article 25 : 



" Neither of the said parties shall permit the ships or goods belong- 

 ing to the subjects or citizens of the other to be taken within cannon 

 shot of the coast, nor in any of the bays, ports, or rivers of their ter- 

 ritories, by ships of war or others having commissions from any 

 Prince, Republic, or State whatever. But in case it should so hap- 

 pen, the party whose territorial rights shall thus have been violated 

 shall use his utmost endeavours," 



and so on. 



There we have again, Sirs, an arrangement as to bays, and no 

 method prescribed in the treaty, at all events plenty of methods 

 outside no method prescribed in the treaty for ascertaining what a 

 bay is. 



Now, Sirs, at that time Delaware Bay no doubt was a bay, because 

 Delaware Bay had been decided (upon the application of Great 

 Britain, as against France) by the United States, to be a bay in 1793. 



Delaware Bay is included in that word " bays " in 1794, undoubt- 

 edly, because the two parties had agreed upon that in the previous 

 year, and Delaware Bay is more than 10 miles wide. The word 

 " bays " then, at a date between the treaties of 1783 and 1818, meant 

 something more than a 6-mile bay, something more than a 10-mile 

 bay, but still something left undefined. 



Now, Sirs, in contrast with this constancy of the British Govern- 

 ment's view of the true construction of this treaty, one turns to the 

 various views from time to time held by the United States; and I 

 think that as we go over them we shall find that they have never been 

 able, except for a few years at a time, to hold any view; that they 

 from time to time changed their view, sometimes coming back again 

 to a discarded view; and that they have now acquired such a fa- 

 cility in changing their views that, during the course of these pres- 

 ent proceedings, and in the documents which they have presented 

 as statements of their views to the Tribunal, you will find three not 

 -only different but quite inconsistent views. 



At the outset, in 1824, the view of the United States seems to have 

 agreed with that of Great Britain that 3 miles from any bay meant 



