AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1659 



were unknown. There was no fishery but the cod fishery. The cod 

 fisheries were all the parties had in mind in making the Treaty of 1818, 

 and to this day, as you have observed from some of the witnesses, 

 " Fishing," by the common speech of Gloucester, fishing means, ex vi 

 termini, cod-fishing is one thing and " mackereling" is another. In Mr. 

 Adams's pamphlet, on the 23d page, he speaks of it as a " fishery," or 

 in other words, cod fishery, and in 1818 the question was of the right 

 of England to exclude. Now for the first time the doctrine respecting 

 the three-mile line had begun to show itself in international law. Great 

 Britain availed herself of it contrary to the instructions given by Queen 

 Elizabeth a very wise princess, certainly surrounded by very wise 

 counselors ; availed herself of it to set up a claim to exclude the deep- 

 sea fishermen, though they did uot touch the land or disturb the bottom 

 of the sea for a distance of three miles out. We denied that there was 

 any such right by international law, certainly none by treaty, and cer- 

 tainly none could be set up against us, who own the right to fish. But 

 England was a powerful nation. She fought us in 1812 and 1814 with 

 one hand I acknowledge it, though it may be against the pride of 

 American citizens while she was fighting all Europe with the other, 

 but she was now at peace. Both nations felt strong ; both nations --vere 

 taking breath after a hard conflict, and it was determined that thure 

 should be an adjustment, and there was an adjustment, and it was this : 

 Great Britain tacitly waived all claim to exclude us from the high seas 

 and from the King's chambers, except harbors and bays. She expressly 

 waived all right to exclude us from the coasts of Labrador from Mount 

 Joly, northward and eastward indefinitely through those tumbling 

 mountains of ice, where we had always pursued our gigantic game. 

 She expressly withheld all claim to exclude us from the Magdalen Isl- 

 ands and from the southern, western, and northern shores of Newfound- 

 land ; and as to all the rest of the Bay of St. Lawrence and the coasts 

 of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, we agreed to her right to exclude 

 us. So that it stood thus : that, under that treaty, and only under that 

 treaty, we admitted that Great Britain might exclude us for a distance 

 of three miles from fishing in all the rest of her possessions in British 

 North America, except those where it was expressly stipulated she 

 should not attempt to do it. So she had a right to exclude us from the 

 three mile line from the shores of Cape Breton, Prince Edward Isl- 

 and, Nova Scotia, a portion of Newfoundland, and New Brunswick, 

 and what has now become the Province of Quebec, while she could not 

 exclude us from the coast of Labrador, the Magdalen Islands, and the 

 rest of Newfoundland. There was the compromise. We got all that 

 was then thought useful, with the right of fishing, with the right to 

 dry nets and cure fish wherever private property was not involved. 

 The Treaty of 1818 lasted until 1854 thirty-six years. Sj we went on 

 under that compromise, with a portion of our ancient rights secured and 

 another portion suspended, and nothing more. 



Great changes took place in that time. The mackerel fishery rose into 

 importance. You honors have had before you the interesting spectacle 

 of an old man who thinks that he was the first man who went from Mas- 

 sachusetts into this gulf and fished for mackerel, in 1827, or thereabouts. 

 He probably was. But mackerel fishing did uot become a trade or busi- 

 ness until considerably after 1830, and the catch of mackerel became 

 important to us as well as to the colonies. 



But there were great difficulties attending the exercise of this claim 

 of exclusion very great difficulties. There always have been, there 

 always must be, and I prayst here always shall be such, until there be 



