AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1735 



legislature showed snch firm determination to enforce the rights of her 

 fishermen and coerce the American to obedience to law and treaties, the 

 responsibility of any possible conflict fell upon the American and not 

 upon the British authorities. 



Our friend, Mr. Dana, expressed, with vehemence of language which 

 impressed us all, the serious consequences which would have followed 

 if a drop of American blood had been spilt in these conflicts. We have 

 too good an opinion of our American cousins to think that they would 

 have been much moved if one of their countrymen had been killed 

 while in the act of violating the law in British territory. The United 

 States have laws as well as other nations against trespass, piracy, and 

 robbery, and it is not in the habit of nations to wage war in the pro- 

 tection of those of their countrymen who commit any of these crimes 

 in a foreign land. The age of filibustering has gone by and no elo- 

 quence can restore it to the standard of a virtue. 



However, a state of things which is calculated to create temptations 

 such as were offered to American fishermen in Canadian waters should 

 beat all times most carefully avoided, and it was the desire of both British 

 and American statesmen to remove such dangerous and inflammable 

 causes of conflict which brought us to the Keciprocity Treaty of 1854. 



By that treaty British waters in North America were thrown open to 

 United StatS citizens, and United States waters north of the 3Gth de- 

 gree of north latitude were thrown open to British fishermen, excepting 

 the salmon and shad fisheries, which were reserved on both sides. Certain 

 articles of produce of the British colonies and of the United States were 

 admitted to each country, respectively, free of duty. 



That treaty suspended the operation of the Convention of 1818, as 

 long as it was in existence. On the 17th of March, 1865, the United 

 States Government gave notice that at the expiration of twelve months 

 ,from that day the Keciprocity Treaty was to terminate. And it did 

 then terminate, and the Convention of 1818 revived from the 17th of 

 March, 1866. 



However, American fishermen were admitted, without interruption, to 

 fish in British American waters on payment of a license, which was col- 

 lected at the Gut of Canso, a very narrow and the nearest entrance to 

 portions of these waters. Some American vessels took licenses the first 

 year, but many did not. The license fee having been raised afterwards 

 few vessels took a license, and finally almost all vessels fished without 

 taking any. Every one will understand the impossibility of enforcing 

 that system. All American vessels having the right to fish in British 

 American waters under the Convention of 1818, those who wanted or 

 professed to limit themselves to fishing outside of the 3-mile limit, had the 

 right to enter on the northern side of Cape Breton without taking a 

 license. As long as that license was purely nominal, niarty took it in or- 

 der .to go everywhere without fear of cruisers or molestation. When 

 our license fee was doubled and afterwards trebled, the number of those 

 who took it gradually dwindled to nothing. The old troubles and irrita- 

 tions were renewed, and many fishermen have explained before the 

 Commission how embarrassing it was in many instances to know from 

 the deck of a vessel how far from the shore that vessel stood. Three 

 miles have to be measured with the eye, not from the visible shore, b 

 from low-water mark. There are coasts which are left dry for several 

 miles by the receding tide. When the tide is up, landmarks may I 

 familiar to the inhabitants of the shore or frequent visitors of its water* 

 but for the fisherman who comes there for the first or second time, or 

 perhaps for the tenth time, but after intervals of years, it may be a dif 



