72 CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the carrying into effect the purposes of the said convention." It is 

 evident, therefore, that this section of the act was intended to author- 

 ize the adoption of regulations for the piu-pose of preventing inter- 

 ference by British subjects with the fishing liberties which were 

 secured to the American fishermen by the treaty and which had 

 been denied them since the War of 1812. 



This interpretation of the meaning of the act is confirmed by the 

 action of the British Government in giving it practical application, 

 and an examination of the regulations adopted by orders in council 

 under this section of the act will show that in every instance such 

 regulations have applied to British subjects and not to American 

 fishermen and that this section of the act has never been interpreted 

 in such orders as authorizing the imposition of regulations upon 

 American fishermen. 



It appears, therefore, both from the terms of the act and from the 

 construction placed upon it by the orders in council adopted under 

 it, that the piu-pose of the first section of the act was to insure the 

 enjoyment by the inhabitants of the United States of the fishing 

 liberties secured to them under the treaty, by imposing such regu- 

 lations upon British subjects as were necessary to prevent them 

 from interfering with such liberties. 



Order in Council of June 19, 1819. 



On June 19, 1819, five days after the date of the act above men- 

 tioned, an order in council was adopted which, so far as appears, is 

 the only order in council adopted under the first section of the act 

 for a period of nearly ninety years from the date of the treaty. This 

 order, after reciting the authority of His Majesty, pursuant to the 

 act, to make regulations for the purpose of carrying into execution 

 the provisions of the treaty relating to the liberty in common which 

 the inhabitants of the United States had with British subjects on the 

 treaty coasts, provides as follows : 



It is ordered by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name 

 and on the behalf of His Majesty, and by and with the advice of 

 His Majesty's Privy Council, in pursuance of the powers vested in 

 His Majesty by the said Act, that the Governor of Newfoundland 

 do give notice to all His Majesty's subjects being in or resorting to the 

 said ports that they are not to interrupt in any manner the aforesaid 

 fishery so as aforesaid allowed to be carried on by the inhabitants of the 

 said United States in common with His Majesty's subjects on the said 

 coasts, within the limits assigned to them by the said Treaty; and 



