AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1845 



Then I cau quote from affidavits. 



Mr. THOMSON. I believe I am making an admission which is not borne 

 oat by the evidence when 1 say /I admit you can turn out twenty such 

 cases as this, which is no contradiction, nor does it fall within that to 

 which I called attention. I said not a captain had been called as a wit- 

 ness and I am willing to treat this man as a captain for the purpose 

 of contradicting the British witnesses. Our witnesses swear that the 

 Americans come down and get an immense quantity of fish there, to the 

 value of one million dollars yearly. This man (Londrigan) comes down 

 and partly bears out that evidence. He comes down to tell you how 

 many herring the captain of the vessel bought and paid for.' Is that 

 any contradiction ? It is a direct affirmative. But if half a dozen cap- 

 tains were put on the stand and said they had been acquainted with the 

 fisheries all their lives, and for the last two years that no such catch of 

 herring as was alleged was ever made by the American fleet, which we 

 knowf rom our experience is not possible, that would be no evidence in 

 contradiction. So far from this evidence, to which Mr. Foster has called 

 attention, being contradiction, it is direct evidence in confirmation. ' 



Mr. DANA. Is your position that we caught the herring ! 



Mr. THOMSON. I say you either caught them or went down and hired 

 people to get them, and by the rule quifacltper alium facit per e, you 

 caught them yourselves. 



Mr. FOSTER. Do you say we caught them or bought them ? 



Mr. THOMSON. I say you did both. I say that a large portion of 

 them, according to the evidence, yon bought. This man comes down 

 and buys. Suppose 500 people did buy, does it prove that 900 people 

 did not come down and catch ? 



Mr. FOSTER. We had Gloucester vessel-owners here who testified 

 that they fitted out their vessels, carrying no appliances to catch her- 

 ring ; that they carried money and brought back herring, leaving the 

 money behind them. 



Mr. THOMSON. With great deference for Gloucester merchants I 

 shall have to deal with their evidence by and by those who have ap- 

 peared before the Commission in affidavits do not stand so well that 

 much attention can be given to their evidence. I want the evidence of 

 men on the spot, of men who came down and fished. It was quite pos- 

 sible for some of the captains, of whom there is a large body, to have 

 been brought down ; they could have been got. We have produced 

 positive, affirmative evidence that they come down and catch fish, while 

 no evidence has been given against that; and it is a significant fact in 

 regard to the Grand Manan fisheries that not a single tittle of contra- 

 dictory evidence, of such a character as to diminish one pin's weight 

 from the British evidence, has been advanced. 



Mr. DANA. Your statement was not that you did not believe t 

 deuce, but that there was no such evidence. 



Mr. THOMSON. I am not going to say I do not believe the \ 

 take the witness to whose evidence Mr. Foster called attention, a 

 say I am willing to admit you could produce twenty such witness 

 so'far from their testimony being contradictory it is affirmat 

 American counsel has not shown that every man who obtu 

 bought them; they could not prove their proposition in tl 

 did not prove that because somebody bought, therefore nob 



R 11 V 



I pass from that to a principle which is laid down by Mr. Fosl 

 page 41 of his speech, in which he says, "You must look at 

 you would at a mere business matter, pencil in hand, and figui 



