AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1809 



on the quarter-deck, and then we were comparatively safe, but sometime* a ncw-floWl 

 provincial, a temporary officer, and then we were anything but safe. And they seised u 

 and took us, not into court, but they took us into harbor, and they stripped as, and the crow 

 left the vessel, and the cargo was landed, and at their will and pleasure the case at la>t might 

 come into court. Then, if we were dismissed, we had no costs, if there wait probable cam* ; 

 we could not see if we had not given a month's notice, and we were helpless. 



I repeat that I deprecate these terms. Who brought the cotters down 

 upon them after 18G6 ? Did Great Britain do so ? Did the Dominion 

 of Canada do so ? Most certainly not. The United States did so. 

 Their eyes were open to the consequences of their act, and the United 

 States, under these circumstances, of their own mere motion, abrogated 

 the Treaty of 1854, by which common privileges were given to American 

 and British fishermen. It was their own act by which that treaty was 

 abrogated ; and, as a consequence, they were remitted to the old system 

 of exclusion. We did not do this. According to Mr. Dana, during all 

 this time, during the twelve years that this treaty was in force, our cut- 

 ters were l>ing in all our harbors with their tires banked, and new- 

 fledged officials, clothed in a little brief authority, strutting the quarter- 

 deck, waiting to come out and make piratical excursions against Amer- 

 ican fishing-vessels. 



Is that description borne out by the evidence ? I appeal to your ex- 

 cellency and your honors whether that is language which ought to have 

 been used on this occasion. I emphatically say that it is not. I say 

 that it is calculated to excite a bad feeling amongst these fishermen, 

 who are not too much disposed to be quieted by the law any way, and 

 to make them more lawless in the future than they have been in the 

 past. 



I will now read another statement to which I take exception. It is to 

 be found on page 73. While speaking of the imposition of the licenses . 

 and of their prices being raised, &c., he said this : 



, Why, this was the result I do not say it was the motive that it left our fishermen unpro- 

 tected, and brought out their cutters and cruisers, and that whole tribe of harpies that line 

 the coast, like so many wreckmen, ready to seize upon any vessel and take it into port and 

 divide the plunder. It left us a prey to them and unprotected. 



Now, may it please your excellency and your honors, I would be less 

 than a man, and be doing less than my duty, if I did not repudiate that 

 language, and if I did not say there is not a tittle of evidence to war- 

 rant that language being used iu this court. This is not a matter to 

 laugh at and joke about at all. These are serious statements, which go 

 forth to the public, and statements which, if they are uneontradk-ted, 

 are calculated to prejudice not only the good relationships which sub- 

 sist between the United States and Great Britain, but also those that 

 exist between Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada henelf. 

 were true that her officers were a set of harpies, preying on the doited 

 States fishermen, and seizing their vessels, taking them iuto their har- 

 bors, and dividing the plunder, it would be time that England should 

 interfere; but such is not the case. I appeal to every member of this 

 Commission, to your excellency and your honors, whether there has 

 been a tittle of evidence adduced warranting the use of language such 

 as that. We have had no evidence at all upon this subject, except I 

 testimony, I think, of a witness whose name I forget, and who gave e 

 dence about a Mr. Derby, who commanded one of the govern men 

 sels. He stated that Captain Derby came on board and was ROIII 

 seize the vessel, when the master said that he would go on board ( 

 cutter, see Mr. Derby, and settle the matter up ; and that the niaa 

 when he came back, said that he had settled it up with Mr. IJ 

 barrels of mackerel. On cross-examination of this man, I du 

 114 F 



