1850 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



well as the other coasts. :m<l although geographically they knew it- 

 would give them all they wanted, yet they thought: " We must make 

 quite sure. Politicians have a way. which geographers think nothing 

 about, of locking up these bays. They say: ' We will not let you go 

 to the coast of the bay, because we are going to take the whole of the 

 bay as part of our territory.' They have a way of drawing the line 

 from headland to headland, and, therefore, as we are taking a right, 

 and want to have it include everything, we will not rest on the word 

 ' coast,' but we will have in the word ' bays.' " The very fact of their 

 doing that shows that they appreciated the distinction which I say 

 existed between the different component parts of the coast a 'very 

 marked difference, and with a very very great result upon the extent 

 of the water being open to the fishing. Because, if you have merely 

 the 9 miles or the 3 miles from the coast, then you miss all the interior 

 of the large bays. If your grant had simply been: " You shall have 

 3 miles all the way round the whole coast," and afterwards your 

 fishermen had come into the bay and said: "We want to fish here." 

 the territorial authorities would have said: k ' You shall not. I have 

 only given you 3 miles round the coast. But the middle of this bny 

 is not open sea. as you seem to think it is. The middle of this bay is 

 my private property." That is what we should have said, if America 

 had asked for and got nothing but the 3-mile limit. The moment that 

 an American fisherman came into that bay, in the middle of it. lie 

 would have been ordered out. He would have said : " But I thought I 

 had a right to fish all the way around the coast." " So you have." 

 would have been the answer, " three miles all the way round ; but you 

 are more than 3 miles here." " But am I not in the open sea '. " 

 " No," the answer would be, " you are not in the open sea. You are 

 where your own country in 1778 agreed should be treated as private' 



property; where France has agreed shall be treated as private 

 1119 property, where Great Britain has agreed shall be treated as 



private property, and therefore you shall go out." And the 

 American negotiators, knowing that, said : " We will have ' bays ' 

 put in ; " and they are put in. 



I now take the next step, and that brings me to 1782, and, as I r-ay. 

 I have been dealing with this argumentatively upon documents. 

 Now I come to something better than an argument upon a document, 

 something that speaks more clearly and more strongly, and not quite 

 so diffusely as any one when he is arguing on a document; and that 

 is the Delaware Bay incident. That is after 1783, and before 1818. 

 In the year 1793, this one incident alone appears, in my very humble 

 and respectful submission, to be conclusive in favour of my case. 

 What is territorial jurisdiction? It is the right to prevent anybody 

 from fishing except your own subjects; that is to say, so far as your 

 own waters are concerned. When I am talking about territorial 



