AWARD OF TilE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1795 



they ineau by fighting for entrance into these waters, and by challeng- 

 ing us with making inhospitable laws to keep them out ! If the lip.s of 

 their witnesses told the truth, the laws are hospitable laws; they are 

 laws passed by us for the purpose apparently of keeping them out of 

 the fishery, but their eft'ect was to keep American fishermen from ruin- 

 ing themselves. They make voyage after voyage into the bay, each cue 

 resulting, they say, in a loss of 8500 or $1,000. 



I will show your excellency and your honors by and by, the figures 

 put in for the purpose of showing the losses made by these men who 

 sent their vessels to the bay for the fish " poor in quality, and vastly 

 less in quantity," while there were thousands and thousands of fish off 

 their own coasts, just waiting to be caught, and deal with those figures 

 as they deserve to be dealt with. Did you ever hear anything like it 

 in the world ? 



The United States Answer further states : 



The Canadian fisheries are a long voyage from any of the markets whatever, and involve 

 far more exposure to loss of vessels and life. These fisheries along the shores of the United 

 States are now open to the competition of the cheap-built vessels, cheap-fed crewn, ^nd 

 poorly-paid labor of the Dominion fishermen, who pay trifling taxes, and live, both on board 

 their vessels and at home, at less than half the expense of American fishermen. 



I have not heard any evidence of that yet. It is a pretty bold asser- 

 tion to put forward, and not support with proof. But if it were true, 

 what does it mean ! We have had the evidence of American fishermen 

 to show that they live like little princes, and we had one witness who 

 absolutely told us that the cook was the chief man on board. The men 

 must make a fortune in the bay to enable them to live like princes, at a 

 rate at which they would only be justified in living if they had from 

 $10,000 to $12,000 a year. If they choose to indulge in expensive dress 

 and food, and return at the end of the year and say they have lost 

 money, are we to lose the compensation to which we are entitled for our 

 fisheries ? I never heard such an argument used before, and I hope 

 never to hear it again. If men choose to eat, drink, and wear all their 

 profits, they cannot both have their cake and eat it. 



Let us see what else the "Answer" says: 



It is only from lack of enterprise, capital, and ability, that the Dominion fishermen bve 

 failed to use them; but recently hundreds of Dominion fishermen have learned their busi- 

 ness at Gloucester, and other American fishing towns, and by shipping in American vessels. 

 They (the Dominion fishermen) have in the United States waters, to-day, over 30 vessel* 

 equipped for seining, which, in company with the American fleet, are sweeping the shores 

 of New England. 



When we first read that extraordinary statement, we were beyond 

 measure astonished. We made inquiries, but no one had ever heard of 

 these vessels ; and, after cross-examining American witnesses and ex- 

 amining our own witnesses, we found at last trace of a phantom ship, 

 one vessel alone, that was ever heard of on the United States coast 

 since the treaty was made. The truth must have been known to the 

 man who gave the information to Mr. Foster, for he must have been a 

 practical man or he would not have been called upon to give informa- 

 tion, and the information is precise, "over thirty vessels. 1 The man who 

 gave that information to Mr. Foster, who induced him to commit his 

 government to such an extraordinary and baseless statement, d'Ii 

 rately and willfully, in my judgment, deceived the Agent of the I 

 States. 



I call your honors' attention to these facts, in order to show t 

 Agent and counsel of the United States hardly knew what sort 

 they had when they came into court. They must have been 



