ARGUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM ROBSON. 1865 



Now, said Mr. Warren, what is the maritime jurisdiction? He 

 aaid it is 3 miles from the coast. Now, what is the maritime juris- 

 diction according to Lord Castlereagh? 



When you turn to the treaty of 1783 and ask what is the latter 

 branch, the latter branch there is the liberty to take fish on the coasts, 

 bays, and creeks. The first branch is the right to take fish on the 

 Grand Bank, in this great Gulf, and in all the rest of the open sea. 

 That is one branch. That is outside the jurisdiction. That is a 

 right. Now, then, says Lord Castlereagh, the latter branch, which 

 is not a " right," which is a " liberty," which comprises the maritime 

 jurisdiction, that covers coasts, bays, and creeks. 



When one appreciates that, it is the keynote of the negotiation. It 



is the first letter. It is the keynote of the negotiation in 1814 



1128 and 1818, and really when one appreciates that, Mr. Warren's 



argument is at an end. because he read this very passage. He 



said " maritime jurisdiction " means 3 miles, and therefore he said 



Lord Castlereagh meant there simply 3 miles from the coast. Not 



at all. Lord Castlereagh meant the bays and 3 miles from the coast. 



That is the maritime jurisdiction of England. That is the agreed 



maritime jurisdiction among all these nations. 



It will become clearer as I go on, although I think it is clear there. 



The bays, then, are placed by Lord Castlereagh within our juris- 

 diction, and with all the consequences that follow upon that, the 

 right to prevent foreigners from fishing there. 



Now on the 8th August (this is merely a -formal document), the 

 British Government gave notice that they " did not intend to grant 

 gratuitously the privileges formerly granted by treaty to them of 

 fishing within the limit's of British sovereignty " now the limits 

 of British sovereignty included bays " and of using the shores of 

 British territory for purposes connected with the fishery." 



Then the same expression " British jurisdiction " is repeated in 

 several letters Mr. Warren went through. He went through them 

 with one meaning. I do not need to go through them again. " Brit- 

 ish jurisdiction" did not mean merely 3 miles, it meant something 

 else as well. 



Now we come to an important letter of the 18th October, which is 

 in the same little booklet, p. 9 [infra, p. 1358]. It is at the bottom of 

 p. 9 and the top of p. 10. This is Lord Bathurst to the Commis- 

 sioners at Ghent: 



" Secondly, the fisheries. You are to state that Great Britain ad- 

 mits the right of the United States to fish on the high seas without 

 the maritime jurisdiction of the territorial possessions of Great 

 Britain in North America; that the extent of the maritime jurisdic- 

 tion of the two contracting parties must be reciprocal; that Great 

 92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 11 19 



