1582 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



March 1, 1823, and admitting British vessels and their cargoes ' to 

 an entry in the ports of the United States from the islands, provinces, 

 and colonies of Great Britain on or near the American continent, and 

 north and east of the United States.' These commercial privileges 

 have since received a large extension in the interests of propinquity, 

 and in some cases favors have been granted by the United States 

 without equivalent concession. 



The importance which the United States attached to these rights 

 and the belief that American fishing-vessels were entitled to them are. 

 shown by two most remarkable acts. One is by the message of Gen- 

 eral Grant of the 5th December. 1870 (Appendix to the Case of 

 Great Britain, p. 241) in which he calls attention to the denial of 

 these rights to American fishing-vessels and to the hostility with 

 which they were being treated in colonial waters, and asks Congress 

 to give him power to shut out the vessels of those colonies so long 

 as the animosity was continued. That was not followed by the pas- 

 sage of any act, because the discussion which was then created, it 

 being in 1870, resulted in the Treaty of Washington in 1871; and 

 the heated and excited condition of both countries, both on that and 

 on the Alabama Case, was allayed by the treaty. 



Again, the act of Congress of the 3rd March, 1887 (Appendix to 

 the Case of Great Britain, p. 792) : that act I have already read in 

 part and referred to in the historical statement which I have made. 

 There President Cleveland was given power to shut our ports to the 

 colonial ships if the practical non-intercourse with our fishing-vessels 

 was continued, and the seizures that followed the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton (1870) were kept up. 



So that we see that whatever those privileges are, and however they 

 were acquired, it is of great importance to ascertain whether, during 

 their continuance, any of the inhabitants of the United States duly 

 authorised by their own government to take advantage of them, can 

 be deprived of them by reason of anything contained in or fairly to 

 be implied from the treaty of 1818. To this extent the British con- 

 tention is correct : that it is the construction of that treaty alone 

 which is submitted to the judgment of this Tribunal. (British 

 Counter-Case, p. 61.) 



The situation is this : a liberty has been granted by a certain treaty 

 to a sovereign Power for the benefit of its inhabitants, to enable them 

 to enter the jurisdiction of another power for the purpose of prose- 

 cuting there a gainful vocation. In addition to this liberty, certain 

 privileges have been accorded to the inhabitants of the first country 

 whereby they have also the right to enter the same jurisdiction for 

 the purpose of trade. The question is whether these inhabitants, 

 when exercising the treaty liberty, are precluded from enjoying at 

 the same time the privileges, and when enjoying the privileges are 

 prohibited from exercising the liberty. In short form, the question 



