ARGUMENT OF ELlHtT ROOT. 2193 



fishermen have the right under the Treaty to fish therein, but the 

 British Government having held that by a true construction of the 

 Treaty such right belonged exclusively to British subjects; and as 

 those waters were thus in dispute between the two nations, you re- 

 spectively advised the citizens and subjects of both countries not to 

 attempt to exercise any right that either claimed within the disputed 

 waters until this disputed right could be adjusted by amicable nego- 

 tiation." 



That is the disposition of the subject made by Mr. Webster's 

 superior in office, Mr. Fillmore, immediately upon the publication 

 of this paper of Mr. Webster's ; and the substance of the same thing 

 was communicated to the British Ambassador. And so the Webster 

 paper must go for naught as any expression of the position of the 

 Government of the United States, or as effecting in any way the 

 opinion of Great Britain regarding the position of the United States ; 

 and we must deem it as one of those mistakes for which the great are 

 to be forgiven when they are gone. 



That brings me to the end of what I have to say on the Fifth Ques- 

 tion, and I shall very easily conclude what I have to say during the 

 day to-morrow, and perhaps before the conclusion of the time 

 to-morrow. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : Mr. Root, if you will kindly pardon me 

 for a moment, may I ask you to revert again to the Bathurst letter 

 on p. 64 of the British Appendix ? I would like you to say whether 

 I have understood your argument based upon that letter correctly. I 

 understand your argument to be that the bays from which Lord 

 Bathurst says it is the intention to exclude United States fishermen 

 are not the bays of all His Majesty's possessions, but only such of 

 those bays as are within the jurisdiction of a maritime league? 



SENATOR ROOT: I do not say they are not the bays of all His 

 Majesty's possessions. I say that they are only the bays that are 

 within the jurisdiction of the maritime league. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : You say the bays of His Majesty's pos- 

 sessions are those which are within the maritime league? 



SENATOR ROOT : Yes. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : In the sense of that letter ? 



SENATOR ROOT : Yes. 



[Thereupon, at 4.35 o'clock p. M., the Tribunal adjourned until to- 

 morrow, Friday, August, 12th, 1910, at 10 o'clock A. M.] 



