ARGUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM ROBSON. 1829 



Great Britain, as well those of the continent as those of the islands 

 situated in the said Gulf of St. Lawrence. And as to what relates to 

 the fishery on the coasts of the island of Cape Breton, out of the said 

 gulf, the subjects of the Most Christian King shall not be permitted 

 to exercise the said fishery but at the distance of 15 leagues from the 

 coasts of the Island of Cape Breton ; " 



In 1763 the United States was not called into existence; so that 

 again the two material Powers there are treating their maritime 

 jurisdiction as extending to this great Gulf of St. Lawrence and 

 dealing with this immense gulf as if it were territorial. Of course, 

 if they would do that it is an a fortiori argument they would do it 

 much more easily and much more naturally with regard to the small 

 gulfs and bays. The Gulf of St. Lawrence is really a great sea. This, 

 in 1778, is what the United States assented to. That is the real 

 treaty after all. It is the treaty of 1778 which is the really impor- 

 tant one. The rest are only part of the history. In 1778 the United 

 States steps into this little group of great Powers. This was almost 

 its first great international act, or one of the most important of its 

 early international acts, and it was to secure to these Powers their 

 territorial dominion over bays as against the rest of the world. 

 That was the principle upon which they founded themselves, and 

 that being the principle, all the ambiguities and I confess they are 

 endless and embarrassing very often in the letters later on disappear. 

 When they are talking about maritime jurisdiction the maritime 

 jurisdiction that they are referring to is this which I am now describ- 

 ing. I will make that quite clear by one of the letters put in by Mr. 

 Warren. I think he did not quite appreciate its importance from 

 my point of view. He laid great stress on the words " maritime 

 jurisdiction " and he said it meant the 3-mile limit. I will examine, 

 on Monday morning, the letters to which he referred, and I will show 

 that the words " maritime jurisdiction " as used by Lord Castlereagh 



referred to the maritime jurisdiction in the second half of that 

 1106 clause of the treaty of 1783. There were two branches of the 



clause in the treaty of 1783. The first branch related to the 

 common right of fishing in the open seas which we thereby acknowl- 

 edged to be outside of our jurisdiction. In 1783 we took the very wise 

 and sensible step of limiting our claims to this great maritime juris- 

 diction. We put the banks and the high seas outside and we said to 

 America: " We acknowledge your right; we do not affect to give you 

 a liberty over this part of the sea ; all this that we have claimed as 

 our territory we treat as being subject to a common right on the part, 

 at all events, of the nations concerned in British North America." 

 But it goes on to say that in regard to what we regard as our mari- 

 time jurisdiction we give you certain liberties. What are they? 

 They are defined in the treaty itself coasts, bays, and creeks. There 



