AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1S"1 



citizens of the West were not at all benefited by the fishing privilege; ud tht 

 the few tisherinen in a remote quarter were entirely exempt from the dangrr. 



But we are told also that " by far the greatest part of the ti.sli taken by our finhormrn 

 before the present war was caught in the^open sea, or upon our own coast*, and CUM*! on 

 our own shores." This assertion is, like the rest, erroneous. 



The shore fishery is carried on in vessels of less than twenty tons burthen, tho proportion 

 of which, as appears by Seybert's Statistical Annals, is about onc-iu-vetith of the whole. 

 With regard to the comparative value of the Bank and Labrador fisheries, I mibjoin hereto 

 information collected from several persons acquainted with tin- in, as thi-ir MniemonU will 

 show in their minutest details. 



I know of no language that can more forcibly bring home to the Com- 

 mission the value of this fishery. If the eloquent language that I have 

 quoted contained a tittle of the truth, then this fishing is the nursery of Un- 

 American naval marine. The future maritime defenders of their country 

 are to be found amongst the bold and fearless men who prosecute the.-*- 

 fisheries, and amongst them alone. From the fishing- vessels of America 

 sprang these maritime defenders of her Hag, who maintained with un- 

 daunted bravery the honor of their country in. the last war with Eng- 

 land, and from the same source must be drawn those who doubtlen* 

 would do so again if unfortunately another war should arise between 

 the two countries. Yet, when we speak of such a fishery as this, we are 

 calmly told by Mr. Foster you must not look at these advantages at all, 

 but like business men, you must, pencil in hand, put down the figures, 

 and make a calculation of the values as though it were a petty matter 

 of bargain and sale between man and man. In the name of our common 

 humanity, in the name of the common honor of England and America, 

 and of the Dominion for which I am counsel this day, I repudiate such 

 a construction being placed upon this treaty. 



There are some other passages in this book to which I may call your 

 attention. At page 210 this language is used : 



These fisheries, as most advantageously secured to the United State* by the Treaty of 

 17d3, and made at the time, I have always understood, a sine qua nan of that treaty, offer 

 an invaluable fund of wealth and power to our country; one which has never been duly 

 attended to, nor justly appreciated, but which, if continued and improved, was destined to 

 grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. 



The prosecution of these coast and bay fisheries, although it had already become extremely 

 advantageous, had undoubtedly reached, in a very small degree, the extension and impor- 

 tance it was capable of attaining. The unsettled state of the commercial world for the p**t 

 twenty years, and the more alluring objects of mercantile enterprise which such a state of 

 things evolved, seemed, in point of immediate consideration and attention, to throw U 

 fisheries into the background ; but still, until first chocked by the system of embargo** and 

 restrictions, and finally stopped by a declaration of war, they were silently, but rapidly, pro- 

 gressing, and reaching an importance which, though generally unknown to our couuuv ud 

 its statesmen, had become highly alarming to the governments and more wealthy mere, 

 of the provinces, and was beginning to attract the attention and jealousy of the cabinet < 

 Great Britain toward them. 



The shores, the creeks, the inlets of the Bay of Fuudy, the Bay of CUaleiin, and 

 of St. Lawrence, tho Straits of Bellisle, and the Coast of Labrador. apj*>r t. 

 designed by the God of Nature as the great ovarium offish; the inexhaustible wpw 

 this species of food, not only for the supply of the American, but also of the European < 

 tiuent. At the proper season, to catch them in endless abundance, hi 

 needed than to bait the hook and pull the line, and occasionally even this w not MOM 

 In clear weather, near the shores, myriads are visible, aud the stnuid \* at I 

 literally pavtd with them. 



All this was gradually making itself known to the enterprise and vigili 

 England fishermen, and for a few seasons prior to tho year 1NM, the rwort to tl 

 menthad become an object of attention, from the Thames at New London, to 

 and boats and vessels of a small as well as a larger size were flocking to it 

 termediate parts of the United States. In the fishing season, at the best pla 

 tne cod, the Xew England fishermen, I am told, on a Sunday, swarmed 

 shores, and that in some of these years, it probably would not make an 

 the number of vessels employed in this fishery belonging to the I mtod ; 

 to 2,000 sail, reckoning a vessel for each trip or voyage, and mcludii 



