ARGUMENT OF JOHN S. EWART. 1403 



the net or seines of any other person or persons." That is one of the 

 regulations that the United States, in its Argument, specifically ob- 

 jects to. 



JUDGE GRAY : The reason I asked you to refer to this statute was 

 that I understand that generally these regulations that you have read 

 were admitted on all hands to be within the competency of the colo- 

 nial legislatures. 



MR. EWART: Not in the United States Argument, Sir. I under- 

 stood Senator Turner to express some provisional doubt about it, but, 

 in their printed Argument, at p. 66, 1 find this : 



"American fishermen, when within the British territory, must not 

 commit crimes nor breaches of the peace, and if they do either 

 847 they may be punished by British law. It is presumed, how- 

 ever, that regulations referable to public order, within the con- 

 tention of Great Britain as stated in Question One, mean the estab- 

 lishment of a general method or order of fishing as between the 

 fishermen, such as, for instance, regulations giving priority to the first 

 comer, forbidding the placing or casting of nets and seines over those 

 already cast, providing rules for separating seines and nets which 

 become entangled, and similar regulations. While regulations of this 

 character may have a tendency to preserve order among the fishermen, 

 yet, since they affect the exercise of the fishing right and might be so 

 framed or so administered as to interfere with its fair enjoyment, 

 the United States can not admit the right of Great Britain to make 

 such regulations applicable to American fishermen without the con- 

 sent of the United States." 



JUDGE GRAY: That escaped me. I think that is perhaps the ex- 

 treme pretension. 



MR. EWART : It seemed to us very extreme. 



THE PRESIDENT: It is said, in the preamble of this Act of 1824, 

 that 



"so much of ... an Act for the encouragement of the fisheries 

 carried on from Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions 

 in Europe, and for securing the Return of the Fishermen, Sailors and 

 others employed in the said Fisheries, to the Ports thereof, at the 

 end of the Fishing Season, as relates to the Masters and Crews of 

 Fishing Ships occupying or using any vacant Spaces in Newfound- 

 land, to the Privilege of Drying Fish on the Shores, to Fishing Ships 

 or Boats not being liable to Restraint or Regulations with respect 

 to Days or Hours of working ..." 

 is repealed. That is the Act which is printed at p. 543? 



MR. EWART: Yes, Sir. 



THE PRESIDENT : And by the statute of 1775, p. 545, section 7, Sun- 

 day repose was abolished. 



u shall not be liable to any restraint or regulation with respect to days 

 or hours of working." 

 Sunday repose was abolished by this Act of 1775 ? 



MR. EWART: Yes, Sir. 



