1620 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



inc up vour award you shall take it into account. And are you, upon 

 anv theories of political economy, to disregard what the treaty says you 

 sh-dl have regard to f Why, nobody ever heard the proposition ad- 

 ranml, until we came here to try this case, that free access to the mar- 

 kets of 'the United States was anything but a most enormous advantage 

 to the people of these provinces. 



Let us look at the history of the negotiations between the two gov- 

 ernments on the subject. As early as 1845 (some years before the nego- 

 tiations with reference to the Reciprocity Treaty), when the Earl of 

 Aberdeen announced to Mr. Everett, as a matter of great liberality, 

 that cur fishermen were no longer to be driven out of the Bay of Fundy, 

 lie went on to say that, in communicating the liberal intentions of Her 

 Majesty's Government, he desired to call Mr. Everett's attention to the 

 fact that the produce of the labor of the British colonial fishermen was 

 at the present moment excluded, by prohibitory duties on the part of the 

 United States, from the markets of that country ; and he submitted 

 that the moment when the British Government made a liberal conces- 

 sion to the United States might well be deemed favorable for a kindred 

 concession on the part of the United States to the British trade, by a 

 reduction of the duties which operated so prejudicially to the interests 

 of British colonial fishermen. That was the view of the home govern- 

 ment long before any reciprocity treaty had been agitated, thirty-two 

 years ago. The letter of Lord Aberdeen bears date March 10, 1845. 



In 1S50, a communication took place between Mr. Everett, then Sec- 

 retary of State, through the British minister at Washington, in which 

 Lord Klgin made the otfer to which I referred in my Case, which I then 

 understood to be an unequivocal offer to exchange free fish for free fish- 

 ing, without regard to other trade relations. I found that, so far as 

 that particular letter went, I was in error, and corrected the error. Sub- 

 sequently, 1 found that Mr. Everett himself, two years later, had tbe 

 same impression, for in a letter that he wrote, as Secretary or State, to 

 the President, in 1853, before the Reciprocity Treaty, he says : 



It ha* Wn perceived with satisfaction that the Government of Her Britannic Maj- 

 eniy i* prepared to enter into an arrangement for the admission of the fishing- vessels 

 of the I'liiied States to a full participation in the public fisheries on the coasts and 

 ftbort-H i.i t)i,. provinces (with the exception, perhaps, at present, of Newfoundland), 

 and in the tight of drying and curing fish on shore, on condition of the admission dnry 

 free into the markets of the United States of the products of the colonial fisheries; 

 nimiliir privileges, on the like condition, to be reciprocally enjoyed by British subjects on 

 the ritaM* and shores of the Uuittd States. Such an arrangement, the Secretary has 

 rraMiii t<> believe, would be acceptable to the fishing interests of the United States. 

 iTbirty-MXXMid Cougress, second session, Senate Ex. Uoc. 34.) 



The latter part of that letter contains a reference to general reciproc- 

 ty, .ui.l shows the anxiety of the British authorities to have inoreexten- 

 bive reciprocal arrangements made. 



Mr. KKI.I.OGG. What is the date of Lord Elgin's letter! 



KOSTKU. The letter of Lord Elgin is dated June 24, 1851. The 



which 1 just read from Mr. Everett to the President was in 18,13. 



: semis that Mr. Everett then understood, as I did, that the 



i specific one, and that the Government of Great Britain was 



me disported to exchange the right of inshore fishing for the 



i*h into the United States duty free. It is not particularly ' 



a date so remote, how the fact really was. I refer to it 



o\v the great importance attached at that early day an ini- 



which hj,s continued to be attached from that time to tbe 



-by the home government as well as the colonial government, 



to free access to tbe markets of the United States. 



