2092 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHEBIES ARBITRATION. 



answer that, after stating his view that he hardly believes Mr. 

 Evarts would consider that no British authority has any right to 

 pass any kind of laws binding upon Americans, he proceeds to say 

 on p. 658 : 



" On the other hand, Her Majesty's Government will readily ad- 

 mit what is, indeed, self-evident that British sovereignty, as re- 

 gards those waters, is limited in its scope by the engagements of the 

 treaty of Washington, which cannot be modified or affected by any 

 municipal legislation." 



I think the world knows enough of this great statesman, one of 

 the best representatives of the English people who ever took part in 

 international affairs a great Foreign Secretary, a great Prime 

 Minister I think the world knows enough of him to know that he 

 would repudiate with indignation the idea that he was in that answer 

 attempting an evasion of the question of Mr. Evarts. The question 

 was: "An avowal or disavowal of the paramount authority of pro- 

 vincial legislation to regulate the enjoyment by our people of the 

 inshore fishery " ; and the answer was : " That British sovereignty, 

 as regards those waters, is limited in its scope by the engagements 

 of the Treaty of Washington, which cannot be modified or affected 

 by any municipal legislation." 



The answer must be read with the question to which it is an 

 answer. And upon that, the Government of Great Britain stands 

 to-day, by the declaration of her counsel including her Attorney- 

 General. 



In this letter, Lord Salisbury, after saying that if there had been 

 inadvertent trespass upon the line, the limits, by any laws which 

 contravened treaties, the matter should be taken up by the two gov- 

 ernments, proceeds to say that Mr. Evarts has not specified any re- 

 cent legislation which is supposed to pass the limits of the American 

 right. Thereupon Mr. Evarts proceeds to specify, in his letter in 

 reply, of the 1st August, 1879. He specifies [p. 671] the prohibi- 

 tion against " taking herring by the seine or other such contrivance 

 between the 20th of October and the 12th of April," and the pro- 

 hibition against " taking herring between the 20th of December and 

 the 1st of April with seines of less than" a certain mesh; and the 

 prohibition against taking herring between the 10th May and the 

 20th October that is the bank fishing season within a mile of any 

 settlement on the south coast; and the Sunday prohibition. And 

 he advises Lord Salisbury that the rights of the United States, the 

 treaty rights, are both "seriously modified and injuriously affected.'' 

 using Lord Salisbury's words, by municipal legislation " which 

 closes such fishery absolutely for seven months of the roar. 



1266 prescribes a special method of exercise, forbids exportation for 

 five months, and, in certain localities, absolutely limits the 



