1640 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



ing to do with that, except to say this: that the Treaty of 1818 depends 

 for its validity and its existence upon the headland question ; that the 

 two stand or fall together; because the Convention of 1818 was a relin- 

 iiuishment of certain rights upon certain conditions, and if those condi- 

 tions are not understood in the same sense by the parties to the contract, 

 the con tract ends or is to be submitted to arbitration. If, then, the treaty 

 of 1871 should end, with nothing else to supply its place, it would be ab- 

 solutely necessary either that the headland question should be settled or 

 the Convention of 1818 should be considered as annulled. 



1 cannot enter into the history of the treaties as fully as I could wish.* 

 The subject is not only one of great historical interest, but in certain 

 contingencies would be of direct consequence. It cannot, however, be 

 treated briefly, or without traveling too far from the immediate question 

 at issue. I will, therefore, only summarize those conclusions which are 

 relevant to the present investigation. 



And I refer to them in this connection because, underlying the whole 

 British Case, just like the consequential argument to which I have 

 already referred, there runs the assumption that in all these transac- 

 tions the policy of the United States lias been one of encroachment and 

 invasion, while the conduct of Great Britain has been that of generous 

 concession. Never was there an assumption more entirely the reverse 

 of historical truth. 



The Treaty of 1783 ascertains and defines what were the original rela- 

 tions of the parties to this controversy. I need not read its provisions, 

 but I do not think I will be contradicted when I say that they were sim- 

 ply the recognition of absolute and equal rights. The separation of the 

 Colonies rendered necessary not only their recognition, but the definite 

 and precise adjustment of their territories and possessions ; and among 

 the latter was recognized and described, not as a grant or concession,, 

 but as an existing right, the use of the fisheries, not only as they had 

 been used, but as they ever should be used by British subjects. Eeserv- 

 ing the territorial and jurisdictional rights on the adjacent shores to the 

 owners of the land, the fisheries, the right to use the waters for the pur- 

 pose of fishing, was made a joint possession. 



At that time the only parties in interest were the citizens of the United 

 States and the British owners of a few fishing settlements along the 

 coasts. The parties who are now the real complainants were not then 

 even in existence. Speak of encroachments! Encroachments upon 

 whom T "Why, in those days, where was Newfoundland, who cornea 

 here to-day as an independent sovereignty and invests her distinguished 

 representative with a measure of ambassadorial authority? Not even 

 a colony a fishing settlement, owned by a British corporation, gov- 

 erned without law by any naval officer who happened to be on the coast 

 with a marline spike in one hand and the articles of war in the other; 

 no Englishman allowed to make a home on the island, and the number 

 women permitted to reside there limited, so as to prevent the growth 



"i 1 .' 11 ? ' J . rillllll , c * m '' r '-^mn to the Treaty of 17d3, says : " The rights conceded to the 

 i-hermcM under this treaty were by no means so great as those which, as 

 t they had enjoyed previous to the war of Independence; for they were 

 > land to dry and cure their fish in any part of Newfoundland, and only in 

 ov Scotia, the Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, where no British settle- 

 MQor night l>e formed, expressly excluding Cape Breton, Prince Edward Is- 

 rhere is noexpress exclusion of Cape Breton and Prince Edward 

 Both were acquired by the Treaty of 1763, and were formally 

 i bcotia. It was not until 1770 that Prince Edward Island had a sepa- 

 i,.nt A* m, experiment, ami n very poor experiment it turned out to be. 

 tiators of 17d3, Nova Scotia included both Cape Breton and 



