1820 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



turned him inside out, and utterly destroyed his testimony; and taking 

 him to the water, if I may use Mr. Trescot's figure of speech, said, " Now, 

 Mr. Low, I drop you down, and you had better swim back to Gloucester; 

 aud he swam back to Gloucester as fast as he possibly could. But I 

 will show that after he got there he endeavored to retrieve his fallen 

 reputation by sending down here affidavits which were probably thought 

 to be beneficial to the American case, but which I will have the honor 

 to show, if they do benefit the American case, benefit it in this way ; 

 and that is that every important statement made under oath in these 

 affidavits will conclusively prove a precisely opposite state of facts 

 to that set forth in the affidavits which were filed by the American Gov- 

 ernment in the earlier part of the case. If that be supporting the Ameri- 

 can case in any respect, I am quite ready to give them all the advantage 

 that can accrue to them from it. 



TUESDAY, November 20, 1877. 



The Conference met. 



The closing argument delivered on behalf of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment was resumed by Mr. Thomson, as follows : 



When I left off last evening, may your excellency and your honors 

 please, I had not the book in which the decision of the Queen vs. Keyn 

 is reported. I have that book now, and, as I supposed, I find that my 

 learned friend Mr. Dana was in error in intimating that the common- 

 law lawyers in that case were entirely afloat. I thought, from my recol- 

 lection of the case, thai: the judges who decided it were all common-law 

 lawyers, as I said yesterday, except Sir Eobert Phillimore, a judge of 

 the high court of admiralty. I hold in my hand a report of the case, 

 and I find that my recollection of it was accurate. 



Mr. Dana, also, in his remarks, referred to the decision of the judicial 

 committee of the privy council, given in the case of the Direct United 

 States Cable Company vs. The Anglo-American Telegraph Company. 

 It is reported in Law Reports, Second Appeal Cases, 394. It was an 

 appeal from the supreme court of Newfoundland to the highest appel- 

 late court in the realm on matters either connected with the admiralty 

 jurisdiction of England or with colonial matters. This court is composed 

 of the lord chancellor for the time being, and of all ex-chancellors and 

 there may be a number of them and of several paid judges, and quite 

 a number of other eminent men besides, all or nearly all of them great 

 lawyers. The judgment in this case was delivered by one of the ablest 

 men on the English bench ; I mean Lord Blackburn, who was trans- 

 ferred from the common-law bench to the House of Lords under a new 

 act which authorized peers to be created for life. 



Mr. Dana appeared to think that Lord Blackburn, in delivering this 

 ;ment, merely spoke for himself; but this was not simply his own 

 judgment; it was also the judgment of the other judges who were asso- 

 ciated with him. Be simply pronounced it, that is all; and he un- 

 doubtedly wrote it, but all the judges agreed with him. 



He said 1 cite from page 421 : 



There WHS a convention made in 1818 between the United States and Great Britain relat- 



) the fisheries of Labrador, Newfoundland, and His Majesty's possessions in North 



ica by which it was apreed that the fishermen of the United States should have the 



i on part of the coasts (not including the part of the island of Newfoundland on 



winch Conception Bay lies) 



