1856 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



States, or for the State of Delaware, the very arguments in favour 

 of the territoriality of Delaware Bay that I am now quoting in 

 favour of the territoriality of Chaleur Bay. And it was those argu- 

 ments which induced France to say : " Yes, you are quite right. This 

 is a territorial bay. We were wrong." Now, he says it is a territorial 

 bay because they assented. I say: "Not at all. They gave their 

 assent not to make it a territorial bay, but they gave their assent be- 

 cause you convinced them that it was a territorial bay." 



So that, in 1793, the argument of the United States was that this 

 bay was what I have called State property. And everybody assented 

 to it. And if everybody was wrong, if everybody is wrong now. if 

 these bays are not to be taken as territorial, then I have not the slight- 

 est hesitation in saying, with all the emphasis that I am able to com- 

 mand, that the territoriality of Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay 

 is gone. If it is the case now that all the bays in the world or, say- 

 ing nothing about the rest of the world, but merely about this part of 

 the world if all the bays of this part of the world are to be treated 

 as non-territorial, in spite of treaties, acquiescence, conduct, through 

 a century and more than a century through two centuries of time 

 the arguments that make them non-territorial apply every bit as 

 much to Delaware Bay as they do to Chaleur. 



I cannot imagine I say it emphatically, but respectfully I cannot 

 imagine an argument that would give the United States Delaware 

 and Chesapeake and refuse to Canada Chaleur and Miramichi. The 

 only argument that Mr. Warren can suggest is : " You, Great Britain, 

 assented to Delaware and Chesapeake being our bays." Our answer 

 is : " Yes, we assented because you asserted. That is why we assented. 

 You said they were territorial. You argued that they were terri- 

 torial, and we never thought of denying it. But now you are coming 

 and saying that all the arguments you used then were wrong. Your 

 Attorney-General said : ' Quite apart from Delaware River, this bay 

 was State property.' We believed him. We think he was right. 

 But if you say he was wrong, and you get an international tribunal 

 to say he was wrong, or to say that we are wrong in Chaleur. then 

 we were wrong in giving our assent to Delaware and Chesapeake. 

 We withdraw our assent. No longer can you claim that they should 

 be territorial." 



It would be a very nice argument indeed if the United States were 

 able to keep its ow r n bays and get into everybody else's. It would be 

 an admirable argument, and Mr. Warren would be entitled to enor- 

 mous credit for it; but it cannot possibly stand. Our assent, our 

 acquiescence in the territoriality of Delaware and Chesapeake Bays 

 goes, if my argument here to-day goes. Because if my argument here 

 to-day is held wrong, we were wrong in assenting to the United 

 States contention in 1793, and our assent is of no importance. 



