AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1693 



and its neighborhood; and whatever of reproach may be cast upon those 

 who did it by the harp of the poet, or the pen of the philanthropist, I 

 cannot but remember that that reproach must be borne mainly by ray 

 own Massachusetts. For it was Massachusetts troops and Massachu- 

 setts ships, under a Massachusetts commander, that forced those people 

 away from their shores. But the historian will not forget that, what- 

 ever may have been the right or the wrong of that proceeding, its result 

 was that it put an end forever to the machinations of the French with 

 the Indians against the peace and security of this province, and the 

 Province of Cape Breton, and left them and their appurtenances wholly 

 and entirely British. 



Your honors will be glad to know that I am now going to take up the 

 last point of importance in our case, and that is, the value of free trade 

 which this treaty has given to all the people of the provinces. Recol- 

 lect what that value is. It is true that, in 1871, when we made this 

 treaty, our duties were two dollars a barrel on mackerel, and one dollar 

 a barrel on herring ; but our right was to make these duties whatever 

 we pleased, absolute exclusion, if two dollars and one dollar did not ex- 

 clude. We had a right to legislate with a simple view to our own in- 

 terests in that matter, and neither the Crown nor the Dominion could 

 be heard on the floor of Congress. But we have bound our hands, we 

 have pledged ourselves that we will put no duties on any of their fish 

 of any kind, fresh or cured, salted or otherwise, or their fish-oil. They 

 may, so long as the treaty lasts, be imported into any part of the United 

 States without any incumbrance or duty whatever. Now, that the 

 United States is the chief market for the mackerel of these provinces, 

 I suppose it cannot be necessary for me to refer to any evidence to re- 

 mind your honors. We have had before us the merchants who deal 

 most largely in Prince Edward Island, Mr. Hall and Mr. Myrick, and 

 we have had two or three or more merchants of Halifax, who did not 

 come here for the purpose of testifying against their own country and 

 in favor of the United States, and from all this evidence it appears con- 

 clusively that, with the exception of some bad mackerel, ill-pressed or 

 ill-cured, and liable to be injured by heat, that may be sent to the 

 West Indies to be consumed by slaves, the entire product goes to the 

 United States. There is no market for it in Canada proper, and the 

 'merchants here, the dealers in fish, lie awaiting the telegraphic signal 

 from Boston or New York to send there whatever mackerel there is, 

 now that they are free from duty which is saved to them. I therefore 

 think I may safely pass over the testimony introduced to prove that the 

 United States is the great market. Some statistics were prepared to 

 show that a duty of two dollars a barrel was prohibitory. In my view, 

 it is quite immaterial. I cannot see how it is material, because, having 

 the power to lay any duties we pleased, we have agreed to lay none, 

 and the benefit to Great Britain, to these provinces, and to this Dominion 

 is the obtaining of a pledge not to put on any duty, high or low, from a 

 people who had the right to exclude the fish utterly, or to make their 

 utter exclusion or their admission dependent upon our sense of our own 

 interests from day to day. Why, until recently the corn-laws of Eng- 

 land were based upon this principle, that they should exclfide all foreign 

 corn, as it is called in old mother English, all foreign " wheat," so long 

 as England could supply the market, and whenever England failed to 

 fully supply the market, then the foreign corn was gradually let in, ac- 

 cording as the market-price rose. We might do that ; we might do what 

 we pleased; but we have tied our hands and agreed to do nothing. 



The evidence presented by my learned friend. Judge Foster, and by 





