AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1705 



result iii something better than the present treaty, but that you will 

 confine yourselves to exactly what the treaty asks and empowers you 

 to do, to determine what now shall be the pecuniary result ; and I again 

 congratulate this tribunal in advance that its determination will be 

 such that, whatever may be the result and whatever the feeling, the 

 two countries will know that the case has been heard under circum- 

 stances the most favorable possible to fairness, before a tribunal ot 

 their own selection, and that each of your honors will know that you 

 have been governed by principle and by that rule of conduct which 

 alone can give a man peace at last. 



VII. 



FINAL ARGUMENTS OF MR. WHITEWAY ON BEHALF OF HEK BRITANNIC 



MAJESTY. 



THURSDAY, November 15, 1877. 

 The Conference met. 



Mr. WHITEWAY addressed the Commission as follows : 

 The duty devolves upon me in taking my part in the closing of this 

 case, which has now engaged your most earnest attention for a period 

 of over five months, of addressing you, first, on behalf of Her Majesty's 

 Government, and in the discharge of that duty it has not been assigned 

 to me, nor is it incumbent upon me to refer to the various treaties which, 

 from time to time, have existed between Great Britain and the United 

 States, relating to those important fisheries, which are the subject now 

 under consideration. I apprehend that it is of little import, in respect 

 to this case, whether the Reciprocity Treaty abrogated the Treaty of 

 1818, as contended for by the learned counsel on the opposite side ; rel- 

 egating our position to the status existing under the Treaty of 1783 ; or 

 what effect the war of 1812 had upon the then existing treaties. These 

 are questions outside the matters now under discussion, and I shall not 

 deal with them. It is sufficient for me to take the Washington Treaty 

 of 1871, which has been correctly termed " the charter of your author- 

 ity," the bond under which you are acting, and make it the foundation 

 of my argument. I arn sure that no one who had the privilege of being 

 present, and the opportunity of listening to the able exposition of my 

 learned friend, the Hon. Mr. Foster, the racy, humorous, and slashing 

 speech of my friend Mr. Trescot, and the classical and philosophical 

 composition of Mr. Dana, could but feel that the United States had 

 been represented by able and efficient men, possessing all the ability and 

 earnestness which could possibly be conceived to be necessary, in order 

 that the case of the United States might be placed before this Commis- 

 sion in the best possible light ; and I heartily believe that there is exist- 

 ing between the Agents and the counsel, engaged in the conduct of this 

 most important cause, an unanimous desire and an earnest zeal tbat 

 justice may be ineted out, and that your verdict may be such as will be 

 satisfactory to each High Contracting Power, and have a material and 

 lasting eft'ect in the promotion of peace and harmony between Her 

 Majesty's subjects on the one part and the citizens of the United States 

 on the other. Reviewing, however, the speeches of the learned gentle- 

 men to whom I have referred, it does appear to me that there has been 

 a vast deal of irrelevant matter introduced ; and that the real issues in- 

 volved have been, in a manner, ignored, and cast into the background. 



