1872 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



ery ; and the number, if the fisheries were continued, would shortlyjbe still further and very 

 greatly extended. 



The nursery for seamen, the consequent increase of power, the mine of wealth, the accu- 

 mulation of capital (for it has been justly observed that he who draws a codfish from the 

 sea gives a piece of silver to his country), the effect upon the trade and custom of Great 

 Britain, and the corresponding advantages to the United States, of which the enlargement 

 of such an intercourse was susceptible (for the stock of fish appears inexhaustible), you are 

 much better able to conceive them than I am to describe ; but I with pleasure point them 

 anew for your consideration, as, on many accounts, presenting one of the most interesting 

 public objects to which it can be directed. 



At page 199 the following language is used : 



Be the opinion of Mr. Russell what it may, the portion of the fisheries to which we are 

 entitled even within the British territorial jurisdiction, is of great importance to this Union. 

 To New England it is among the most valuable of earthly possessions. 



Xow, in the course of his argument, Mr. Foster put the question as 

 if it turned distinctly upon who paid the duty, the producer or the 

 consumer. Whether that be absolutely necessary for the purpose of 

 determining this case in favor of Great Britain or not, is not for me to 

 say. That is a question of political economy with which I am neither 

 desirous, nor probably capable of dealing. But I am. not afraid to let 

 our case turn upon that question. I think I shall show you, by evi- 

 dence of witnesses and by figures, that in every instance in this case 

 the duty is paid by the consumer. I a in speaking more particularly of 

 the mackerel. I shall conclusively show that iu the year when the Re- 

 ciprocity Treaty was iu force, the price of mackerel fell off; that imme- 

 diately after the Reciprocity Treaty terminated, the price of mackerel 

 rose in the market. I shall show that immediately after that state of 

 affairs was terminated by the Treaty of Washington the price of mack- 

 erel again fell off, and we say that these facts establish at once that the 

 consumer must have paid the duty. Our witnesses have, one and all, 

 or nearly all, testified that in their judgment the consumer paid the 

 duty. In answer to the question put by the learned counsel associated 

 with me and myself, " Would you rather have the Americans excluded 

 from your fisheries and pay the duty ? " they have said " Yes." While 

 I am upon this subject I will remark, although I will not have time to 

 turn attention to the document itself, that Mr. Foster, or at all events 

 one of the learned counsel for the United States, read iu his speech a 

 communication from Hon. Peter Mitchell, then minister of marine and 

 fisheries, for the purpose of showing that the repeal of the Reciprocity 

 Treaty would be ruinous to our fishermen. Now, upon reference to that 

 communication you will find that what he did put forward was this: 

 that if the Americans would come in without either paying a license- 

 fee or giving any other compensation at all for our fisheries, and if they 

 fished in our territorial waters where the fish were to be taken, side by 

 side with our own fishermen, and then carried their catch into the 

 American market free of duty, while our fishermen, fishing on the same 

 terms and with no better appliances, were met there with a duty of $2 a 

 barrel on mackerel and $1 on herring, it would necessarily be ruinous. 

 And that proposition no doubt has a vast deal of truth in it. It is im- 

 possible, 1 assume, for two persons to fish upon equal terms in the same 

 waters, and then when they go into the American market for one to be 

 met by a duty while the other has no such duty to pay, without it oper- 

 ating to the disadvantage of the former. But that is a totally different 

 case from the one we have to deal with. 



Now I shall show you, as I have said, that during the period of the 

 Reciprocity Treaty the prices were low, and that the moment that treaty 

 was repealed or abrogated by notice from the American Government 



