ARGUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM ROBSON. 1777 



I shall try to deal very shortly with my case on this point, be- 

 cause really what I have stated covers the whole principle of the 

 thing. There is really nothing more to be said as a matter of prin- 

 ciple, so far as is necessary to answer the question ; but of course this 

 has been made the subject of very careful argument by Senator 

 Turner, and I must not treat that argument as if it were not one 

 that called for an answer. I propose to adopt this method, which 

 I think will shorten the time: It will be for me, in dealing with the 

 facts of the case, to show the ordinary course of the legislation and 

 of business, the course of affairs in relation to charges of this char- 

 acter before the treaty and under the treaty, in order to show that 

 the treaty was made with reference to such charges and such regula- 

 tions, and that such charges and regulations were submitted to. 

 There is a long course of statutes of the kind that one might sub- 

 mit, and, as I indicated yesterday, what I propose to do, by the per- 

 mission of the Tribunal, is this : I propose to go through those stat- 

 utes now, as part of my argument orally, but referring to them very 

 generally, in order that the note may be clear. I will give the date 

 of any statute I am referring to, and I will then hand in, as an addi- 

 tional appendix to my remarks, a complete statement of the legisla- 

 tion, classified as Acts which precede the treaty, up to 1783; and 

 then, following the ordinary classification again, a fresh class for 

 the period from 1783 to 1818, and then the statutes subsequent to 

 1818. That will enable me now to deal very generally and very 

 shortly with them as a part of my argument, instead of going elab- 

 orately through them, and at the same time will subject me to the 



check of reference as to each statement that I make. 

 1075 I take, first, the light dues. Then I will take the question of 



customs and report. When I come to the question of customs 

 I may have to go back to some very old statutes, because I observe 

 that the customs regulations of England seem to begin effectively 

 for our purpose in 1661, when the old feudal duties were beginning 

 to be of less importance in the national finance, and tonnage and 

 other customs dues were beginning to assume their larger place; 

 but for light dues one does not need to go back so far. 



Before 1783 it was habitual on the part of the American colonies 

 to levy light dues. I am only taking one or two instances of them, 

 because they are quite sufficient to illustrate how this principle oper- 

 ated, both in America and in the rest of the world. I have not taken 

 a very wide area for the selection of statutes, or it would have been 

 interminable. I take a few of these, because they illustrate a point 

 that may be made against me. Many of them, and especially in 

 America, differentiate in favour of fishermen. Frequently, in laying 



Appendix (D), supra, p. 1376. 



