1736 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



we pushed it to an extent which could not be justified in law, and 

 which brought fresh enemies about our heads as a consequence. But 

 all that shows how little likely we were to give the advantages of 

 our training-ground to any foreign State or any foreign seamen. 



Anyhow, I am sure that, without very clear evidence, the Tribunal 



would not accept that assertion that foreigners were employed, so 



as to give any reason to the American inhabitants to suppose that 



they would be allowed to go on employing them. The only relevance 



of the suggestion that foreigners were then employed would be that 



it was part of the existing conditions surrounding the grant, 



1050 which might give rise to a reasonable expectation on the part 



of the grantee that he would be permitted to go on employing 



foreigners. He never did employ them, and he never would have 



been allowed to go on. 



I think Mr. Adams' letter itself, which I was about to read, shows 

 how little likely it was or how unsuited to the general condition of 

 American fishing the employment of foreigners would have been. It 

 was not a great ship fishery. Of course it was a ship fishery to the 

 extent that you had to go in ships, and you had to have ships of 

 sufficient size to make that long journey and carry an adequate 

 cargo; but there was no question of the Gloucester men at that time 

 employing Scandinavians and Poles. They were not there. 



JUDGE GRAY: An alien can be an inhabitant, can he not, Sir Wil- 

 liam? 



SIB W. ROBSON : Oh, certainly. 



JUDGE GRAY: There is some significance in the use of the word 

 " inhabitants," then, as distinguished from " citizen " or " subject " ? 



SIR W. ROBSON: Certainly. That, again, shows the spirit in 

 which the grant was made. We do not make any enquiry into cit- 

 izenship, which is a matter somewhat difficult of proof. We enquire 

 only into inhabitancy. Then, it would have been very difficult to 

 say " citizens " of the United States. It would have been a rather 

 unkindly limitation on the right, because there were many then in 

 the colony of Massachusetts who might not have taken citizenship 

 of the United States. I do not know how that would be. But Mr. 

 Justice Gray will no doubt remember the long controversy and dif- 

 ficulty there was with regard to the subjects who retained their alle- 

 giance. They were to be allowed to leave the severed colonies 

 that is to say, the United States and take up their abode under the 

 flag of Great Britain, within a certain time, if they thought fit 

 But there would be many, no doubt, who would remain, and be 

 allowed to remain, because they were among old friends, although 

 they had not become citizens of the United States. And there was 

 certainly no desire on the part of England to deprive them of the 

 right 



