ARGUMENT OF ELIHTJ BOOT. 2103 



with the order in council. The correspondence appears at pp. 580 

 and 581 of the American Appendix. 



Mr. Thornton Sir Edward Thornton by that time, I think 

 sends to Mr. Fish, in a note of the 14th April, 1870, a copy of a de- 

 spatch from the Governor -General of Canada, at the top of p. 580 

 of the American Appendix. In that despatch is a statement of the 

 provisions of the Act of 1868 to which I have referred, and also a 

 statement of the order in council to which I have referred, quoting 

 the terms of the order in council not quoting the limitation in the 

 Act, but quoting the words of the order : " that henceforth all 

 1272 foreign fishermen shall be prevented from fishing in the 

 waters of Canada." And thereupon Mr. Fish writes back to 

 Mr. Thornton a letter which appears on p. 581, dated the 21st April, 

 1870, acknowledges the receipt of this statute and this order in coun- 

 cil, and calls attention to the fact that the language of the order in 

 council would appear to be broad enough to cover the treaty coast. 



JUDGE GRAY : The treaty coasts of Canada ? 



SENATOR BOOT : The treaty coasts of Canada. 



Mr. Fish says, after acknowledging the receipt of the note of Mr. 

 Thornton : 



" I must invite your attention and that of her Majesty's authorities 

 to the first paragraph of the order in council of the 8th of January 

 last, as quoted in the memorandum of the Prime Minister of the 

 Dominion of Canada, accompanying the despatch of his excellency 

 the Governor General, which paragraph is in the following lan- 

 guage, to wit : 



" That the system of granting fishing licence to foreign vessels, 

 under the Act. 31 Vic. cap. 61, be discontinued, and that henceforth 

 all foreign -fishermen be prevented from -fishing in the waters of 

 Canada. 



" The words underscored seem to contemplate an interference with 

 rights guaranteed to the United States under the first article of the 

 treaty of 1818, which secures to American fishermen the right of 

 fishing in certain waters which are understood to be claimed at 

 present as belonging to Canada." 



Mr. Thornton writes back to Mr. Fish a letter on the same page 

 (581 of the United States Case Appendix) acknowledging Mr. Fish's 

 note and saying: 



" I am forwarding a copy of your note to the Governor General 

 of Canada ; but, in the meantime, I beg you will allow me to express 

 my conviction that there was not the slightest intention in issuing 

 the above-mentioned order, to abridge citizens of the United States 

 of anv of the rights to which they are entitled by the treaty of 

 October 20, 1818, and which are tacitly acknowledged in the Canadian 

 law of May 22, 1868. a copy of which I had the honor to forward to 

 you in my "note of the 14th instant." 



