194 



THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



The seal 

 fisheries. 



were made its necessity would first have to be demon- 

 International strated, not only to the State that proposed it, but to the 

 conventions. Government of every other country whose fishermen would 

 be affected by it. The conclusion of a Convention embody- 

 ing any such provision would be primd facie evidence of its 

 necessity, for it is hardly likely that, even if one nation 

 should desire it, half-a-dozen countries would be found to 

 join in enacting and enforcing an unnecessary law. If, 

 therefore, the advocates of a law of close time, or of mesh, 

 in the North Sea, were to produce evidence that Germany, 

 France, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and Denmark would 

 join England in working it, they would advance a con- 

 siderable step towards its adoption. 



One such matter of pure " protection," as distinguished 

 from ordinary " police " regulation, has already been made 

 the subject of an International Convention, without which 

 the object aimed at could not have been attained. The 

 very general desire to afford protection to the immature 

 seals in the Greenland seas led the Governments of the 

 various nations interested in that branch of the fishing 

 industry to prohibit the killing of seals within a certain 

 area before the 6th of April, and to give facilities for the 

 prosecution of offenders. In this case the remoteness of 

 the sealing grounds from the general track of commerce 

 would at first sight appear to be sufficient to make offenders 

 feel sure of avoiding detection ; but, as the close time was 

 established at the earnest request of some of the most 

 influential persons directly engaged in the pursuit, it was 

 thought to be a sufficient safeguard to encourage informers 

 to enforce the law by offering them a moiety of the pretty 

 considerable penalty attaching to breaches of it. 



Hitherto the history of Conventions on the subject of the 

 sea fisheries between this and adjoining States has been 



The French 

 Convention. 



