1668 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



ington, in 1871, and then made a great treaty of peace. I call it a 

 " treaty of peace " because it was a treaty which precluded war ; not 

 restored jn-ace after war, but prevented war, upon terms most honorable 

 to l>oth parties; and as one portion of that treaty one that, though 

 not the most important by any means, nor filling so large a place in the 

 public e;se as did the congress at Geneva, yet filling a very important 

 place in history, and its consequences to the people of both countries, 

 was the determination of this vexed and perpetual question of the rights 

 of fishing in the bays of the Northwestern Atlantic ; and by that treaty 

 we went back again' to the old condition in which we had been from 1620 

 down, with the exception of the period between 1818 and 1854 and the 

 period between 1800 and 1871. That restored both sides to the only 

 condition in which there can be peace and security; peace of mind at 

 least, freedom from apprehension, between the two governments. 



And when those terms were made, which were terms of peace, of good- 

 will to men, of security for the future, and of permanent basis always, 

 and we agreed to free trade mutually in fish and fish-oil, and free rights 

 of fishing, as theretofore almost always held, Great Britain said, " Very 

 well ; but there should be paid to us a money-compensation." The United 

 States asked none ; perhaps it did not think itself entitled to any. Great 

 Britain said, "This is all very well; but there should be a compensation 

 in money, because we are informed by the provinces" I do not believe 

 that Great Britain cared anything about it herself "that it is of more 

 pecuniaiy value to the Americans to have their right of fishing extended 

 over that region from which they have been excluded than it is to us to 

 have secured to us free right to sell all over the United States the catch- 

 ings of Her Majesty's subjects, free from any duty that the Americans 

 might possibly put upon us." " Very well," said the United States, u if 

 that is your view of it, if you really think you ought to have a money- 

 compensation, we will agree to submit it to a tribunal." And to this 

 tribunal it is submitted: First, under Article XVIII of the Treaty of 

 1871, what is the money-value of what the United States obtains under 

 that article? Next, what is the money-value of what Great Britain ob- 

 tains under Articles XXI and XIX? Second, is what the United 

 States obtains under Article XVIII of more pecuniary value than what 

 Great Britain obtains under her two articles? Because I put out of 

 sight our right to send to this market and the right of the people of the 

 provinces to fish oft' our coasts, as 1 do not think either of them to be 

 of much consequence. "If you shall be of opinion," says the treaty, 

 "that there is no difference of value and of course that means no 

 tttbxttintuil difference in value- then your deliberations are at an end; 

 but if you shall think there is a substantial difference in value, then 

 \our deliberations must go further, to show what the two values are, 

 winch is the greater, and what is the difference." 



I hope, if your honors are not already persuaded, that you will be be- 

 fore tin- close of the argument on the part of the United States, and 

 may not be driven from that persuasion by anything that may occur on 

 the other side, that the United States were 'quite honest when they 

 made the statement in 1871 that in asking for the abandonment of the 

 tnctive system in regard to the fisheries, they did not do it so much 

 from the commercial or intrinsic value of the fishing within the three- , 



lile line, as for the purpose of removing a cause of irritation; and I hope 

 the members of this tribunal have already felt that Great Britain, 



i maintaining that exclusive system, was doing injustice to herself. 



ing herself expense, loss, and peril ; that she was causing irritation 



and danger to the United States; that it was maintained from, a mis- 



