1546 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



and cleared out as fishing-ships in pursuance of this Act, or of the 

 before-mentioned Act, made in the tenth and eleventh years of the 

 reign of the late King William III, and which shall be actually em- 

 ployed in the fishery there, or any boat or craft whatsoever employed 

 in carrying coastwise, to be landed or put on board any ships or ves- 

 sels any fish, oil, salt, provisions, or other necessaries for the use and 

 purpose of that fishery, shall not be liable to any restraint or regula- 

 tion with respect to days or hours of working, nor to make any entry 

 at the custom-house at Newfoundland, except a report to be made by 

 the master on his first arrival there, and at his clearing out from 

 thence; and that a fee not exceeding 2s. 6d. shall and may be taken 

 by the officers of the customs at Newfoundland for each such report ; 

 and that no other fee shall be taken or demanded by any officer of 

 the customs there upon any other pretence whatsoever relative to the 

 said fishery, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



" Provided always, and be it enacted, that in case any such fishing 

 ship or vessel shall at her last clearing out from the said island of 

 Newfoundland have on board, or export any goods or merchandise 

 whatsoever except fish, or oil made of fish, such ship or vessel, and the 

 goods thereon laden, shall be subject and liable to the same securities, 

 restrictions, and regulations, in all respects, as they would have been 

 subject and liable to if this Act had not been made, anything herein- 

 before contained to the contrary notwithstanding." 



That Act of 1775 comes very near expressing the present conten- 

 tion of the United States with regard to its fishing-vessels, because 

 we say, and have always said, that the moment a vessel became a 

 trading-vessel, or was registered with right to trade as well as fish, 

 then she did become liable to formal entry at the Customs; but that 

 so long as she was simply a fishing- vessel, exercising these privileges 

 or liberties, she should not be called upon in any event to do anything 

 more than to report, and that that was all that the Newfoundland 

 people had a right, or anybody else had a right even our friends of 

 Canada to require of us. 



It was urged in the British Case and Argument, and I think in the 

 oral arguments, though I am not sure, that the United States was 

 contending that it had commercial privileges under the treaty of 1818, 

 and that nevertheless, though we were entitled to commercial privi- 

 leges, and claiming them, we were denying our liability to enter at 

 Customs and our liability to pay dues as other trading-vessels 

 936 paid them. The United States never has made such a con- 

 tention. It has been over and over again denied in the papers 

 in this Case, and is denied now. So that the question comes down 

 distinctly to fishing-vessels pure and simple. 



I must be pardoned for adverting for a moment to Sir Robert Fin- 

 lay's oral argument on this question and his use of the words. At p. 

 1354 of the record he says that he will examine these Questions 3 and 



