AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1781 



take of a partisan character, and not only so, but that it was inevitable 

 that the government speakers wonkl use the strongest arguments they 

 could in defense of the action of their leader, even though their argu- 

 ments weakened the case of their country in an international point of 

 view. Had my learned friends been content to put forward these 

 speeches in their Answer, and quote them for the purpose of argument, 

 there would have been nothing to say beyond this, that when Sir John 

 A. Macdonald and others talked about the fisheries they were speaking 

 of what they knew nothing about. They had no practical knowledge 

 whatever. What practical knowledge of the matter had any of us 

 around this table before hearing the evidence ! None whatever. And 

 yet, can it be that Sir John A. Macdonald, Dr. Tapper, Mr. Stewart 

 Campbell, or anybody else who made speeches, and wbos, remarks 

 have been quoted, had a tithe of the information that we now possess? 

 Therefore, I think that we may dismiss the whole of those speeches by 

 saying, without meaning anything discourteous, that they were talking 

 about matters of which they knew nothing, and therefore that their 

 speeches ought to have no weight with this Commission. But Mr. Tres- 

 cot has relieved me from using even that argument, for he has referred 

 to this minute of council, which I hold in my hand, passed in the very 

 year in which the Washington Treaty was negotiated, and before the 

 legislature of Canada had adopted it. And I wish to call the attention 

 of the Commission to the fact that the whole privy council were pres- 

 ent, including Mr. Peter Mitchell, the then minister of marine and fish- 

 eries, and especially to the fact that Sir John A. Macdonald was present. 

 The minute is as follows: 



PRIVY COUNCIL CHAMIIKK, 



Ottawa, Friday, July'M, H7I. 



Present: The Hon. Dr. Tapper, in the chair ; the Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, the Hon. 

 Sir George Et. Cartier, the Hon. Mr. Tilley, the Hon. Mr. Mitchell, the Hon. Mr. Camp- 

 'bell, the Hon. Mr. Cbapais, the Hon. Mr. Langevin, the Hon. Mr. Howe, the Hon. Sir 

 Francis Hincks, the Hon. Mr. Dunkin, the Hon. Mr. Aikins. 



To His Excellency the Right Honorable John Baron LISGAR, 



G. C. B., G. C. M. G., P. C., 



Governor-General of Canada, JT., cf - c., fre.: 

 May it please your excellency : 



The committee of the Privy Council have had under their consideration the Earl of 

 Kimberley's dispatch to your excellency, dated the 17th June ultimo, transmitting copies ot 

 the treaty signed at Washington on the 8th May last by the Joint High Commissioners, and 

 which has since been ratified by Her Majesty and by the United States of America; of the 



the United States Commissioners of the claims of Canada for the losses sustained owing to 

 the Fenian raids of 1866 and 1870. 



The committee of the Privy Council have not failed to give their anxious consider* 

 the important subjects discussed in the Earl of Kimberley's dispatches, and they teel asur 

 that they will consult the best interests of the empire by stating frankly, for the information 

 of Her Majesty's Government, the result of their deliberations, which they believe I 

 accordance with public opinion in all parts of the Dominion. 



The committee of the Privy Council readily admit that Canada is deeply inter* 

 maintenance of cordial relations between the Republic of the United States and t 

 Empire, and they would therefore have been prepared without hesitation to reconu 

 Canadian Parliament to co-operate in procuring an amicable settlement of all < 

 likely to endanger the good understanding between the two countries, tor i 

 they would not have hesitated to recommend the concession of some valuable n 

 they have always claimed to enjoy under the Treaty of 1818, and for which M t 

 Kimberley observes, Her Majesty's Government have always contended, both 

 having acted on the interpretation given to the treaty in question by high legal a 

 The general dissatisfaction which the publication of the Treaty of V\ asbmgton has pro 

 in Canada, and which has been expressed with as much force in the agncul 

 the west as in the maritime provinces, arises chiefly from two causes: 



