1544 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



citizens of the United States liberty to take fish, and permission to land 

 upon tin- said coasts and islands, and also on the Magdalen Islands for 

 tin- purpose of drying nets and caring fish. You will observe that the 

 United States renounced the right to the inshore fisheries in 1818, but 

 these are regained by the provisions of the 18th Article of the Treaty 

 of Washington. The United States retained the right of resorting to 

 British ports for shelter, repairs, and purchasing wood and water, sub- 

 ject to such regulations as would prevent their citizens drying fish on 

 the shore; and the object of this article is to add to the inshore fisheries 

 the right to dry nets and cure fish on the shore, and this superadded 

 right is limited to parts of the coast where it does not interfere witli 

 private property, or the similar rights of British fishermen. Now, what 

 argument can be constructed from provisions like these to infer the crea- 

 tion of an affirmative commercial privilege or the right to purchase sup- 

 plies and transship cargoes, I am at a loss to imagine. It seems to me 

 that it I were required to maintain that under the right conceded to dry 

 nets and cure fish on unoccupied and unowned shores and coasts, taking 

 care not to interfere with British fishermen, couched in language like 

 that, the United States had obtained a right to buy what the policy of the 

 British Government might forbid to be sold, I should not have one word 

 to say for myself. I cannot conceive how a commercial privilege can 

 be founded upon that language, or how you can construct an argument 

 upon that language in support of its existence. But, gentlemen, this is 

 not to be decided by the strict language of the treaty alone. We know 

 very well what the views of Great Britain on such subjects are, and we 

 know what the policy of Her Majesty's Government was just before this 

 treaty \v;is entered into. On the 16th of February, 1871, Earl Kiinber- 

 ley wrote to Lord Lisgar as follows: 



The exclusion of American fishermen from resorting to Canadian ports, except for the 

 jnir> ose of shelter, and of repairing damages therein, purchasing wood, and of obtain- 

 ing water, might he warranted hy the letter of the treaty of 18H, and by the terms of 

 the Imperial Act 59, Geo. HI.. Chap. 38, but Her Majesty's Government feel bound to 

 blah* that it seems to them an extreme measure inconsistent with the general policy 

 of the empire, and they are disposed to concede this point to the United States Govern- 

 ment under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent smuggling, and to guard 

 gainst any substantial invasion of the exclusive rights of fishing which may be re- 

 btTvrd to British subjects. 



A month later, on the 17th of March, 1871, another letter from Eirl 

 Kimberley to Lord Lisgar gives to the colonial authorities this admoni- 

 tion: 



I think it right, however, to add that the responsibility of determining what is the 



i count ruction of a treaty made by Her Majesty with any foreign power must re- 



Her Majesty's Government, and that the degree to which this country would 



II a party t' the strict enforcement; of treaty rights may depend not only ou 



the libernl ooimtructioo of the treaty, but ou the moderation and reasonableness with 



watch thom- rights are asserted. 



In sneh a spirit, and with these views of commercial policy, the Treaty 



f >N aauington was negotiated ; and can one believe that it was intended 



have a valuation by arbitration oi the mutual privileges of international 



Dminercef Gentlemen, suppose that the Canadian representative on 



fligh Commission, when the 18th Article was under consider*- 



d proposed to amend it by adding in language something like 



: an. I the said Commissioners shall further award suou compensa- 



iiM, in their judgment, the United States ought to pay far its citizens 



itf allowed to buy ice, and herring, squid and caplin, of Canadians 



oundlanders, and for the further privilege of being allowed to 



mh them with tlour, and kerosene oil, and other articles of merchan- 



