AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1 - ", 



For tbe kind consideration and unfailing urbanity extended to my 

 colleagues and myself, I tender to your excellency and your honor* mv 

 most sincere acknowledgment and thanks. 



What shall I say to my brethren of the United States? To their 

 uniform courtesy, tact, and kindly feeling we chiefly owe it that This 

 protracted inquiry has almost reached its termination without uupleaa- 

 ant difference or dissension of any kind. 



To the cause of the United States, which both my patriotism and ray 

 professional duty constrain me to regard as utterly untenable, tbe 

 ability, ingenuity, and eloquence of Judge Foster, Mr. Dana, and Mr. 

 Trescot, have done more than justice. They have shown themselves uo 

 unworthy members of a profession which in' their own country has been 

 adorned and illustrated on the bench and at the bar by the profound 

 learning of a Marshall, a Kent, and a Story, and by the brilliant elo- 

 quence of a Webster and a Choate. From my learned, able, and aocom - 

 plished brethren of the United States I shall part, when this Comuimsion 

 shall have closed its labors, with unfeigned regret. 



A few words more and I have done. To the judgment of this tribunal, 

 should it prove adverse to my anticipations, Great Britain and Canada 

 will bow without a murmur. Should, however, the decision be other- 

 wise, it is gratifying to know that we have the assurance of her counsel, 

 that America will accept the award in the same spirit with which En- 

 gland accepted tbe Geneva judgment, and like England pay it without 

 unnecessary delay. This is as it should be. It is a spirit which reflect* 

 honor upon both countries. The spectacle presented by the Treaty ot 

 Washington, and the arbitrations under it, is one at which the world 

 must gaze with wonder and admiration. While nearly every other 

 nation of the world settles its difficulties with other powers by the 

 dreadful arbitrament of the sword, England and America, two of the 

 most powerful nations upon the earth, whose peaceful flags of com- 

 merce float side by side in every quarter of the habitable globe, whose 

 ships of war salute each other almost daily in every clime and on every 

 sea, refer their differences to the peaceful arbitrament of Christian men, 

 sitting without show or parade of any kind in open court 



On the day that the Treaty of Washington was signed by the High 

 Contracting Parties, an epoch in the history of civilization was reached. 

 On that day the heaviest blow ever struck by human agency fell upon 

 that great anvil of the Almighty, upon which in His own way, and at 

 His appointed time, the sword and the spear shall be transformed into 

 the plowshare and the reaping-hook. 



