ARGUMENT OF ELIHU ROOT. 2059 



dare say came down in the revised statutes, was a provision for river 

 protection. 



THE PRESIDENT : Is not that No. 15 for the establishment of a close 

 season ? " No herring shall be taken between the 15th of July and 

 the 15th of October in any year." 



SENATOR ROOT : On the spawning grounds. 



THE PRESIDENT : Yes. It was a close season. 



SENATOR ROOT: Yes, on the spawning grounds. And it was ap- 

 proved, and properly approved, by Mr. Marcy when presented to 

 him. And the Tribunal will observe it was presented to him with 

 this understanding, which appears in Mr. Crampton's letter of 27th 

 June, 1853, to Mr. Manners Sutton, which will be found on 

 1246 pp. 205 and 206 of the British Case Appendix. The Tribunal 

 will observe in that letter, at the top of p. 206 of the British 

 Case Appendix, that Mr. Crampton says : 



" Mr. Marcy entirely concurs with me in the opinion that such a 

 measure would be calculated to prevent the occurrence of any mis- 

 understanding on the part of American fishermen, who may now 

 resort to New Brunswick for the purpose of exercising their newly 

 acquired rights under the Treaty of Reciprocity, and proposes that, 

 after the documents with which Your Excellency is about to fur- 

 nish me shall have been examined by him, and shall" have been 

 found, as he doubts not will be the case, to contain no provisions in- 

 consistent with the full enjoyment of the American citizens of the 

 rights of -fishing secured them by the Treaty, and to direct the ' Col- 

 lectors of the United States' Customs ' to furnish copies of the same 

 to the masters of all the vessels clearing from American ports to the 

 British fisheries." 



That is the proposition on which these laws were presented to Mr. 

 Marcy for his consideration and approval : the proposition that their 

 provisions were not inconsistent with the full enjoyment of the 

 American citizens' rights of fishing secured to them by the treaty. 

 And, indeed, a provision might well be approved which prevented the 

 throwing of gurry overboard except at a particular place, and which 

 protected the spawning ground, and which protected the rivers of 

 Xew Brunswick in which we had no right to fish. 



But the paucity of regulation twenty-seven years after the treaty 

 of 1818 was made is what I call the attention of the Tribunal to now, 

 as tending to support the statements which I have made regarding 

 the existence of any system of regulation in 1818 or at any time prior 

 to that time. 



One other thing is to be observed. Mr. Crampton, in his letter 

 of June 1855, which appears on p. 206 of the British Case Appendix, 

 says : 



" I have thought it right to bring this matter under the immediate 

 attention of the Governor-General of Canada, and the Lieutenant- 

 Governors of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, with a view to the 



