162 CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



described and the award of S5, 500,000, based in part upon the value 

 of such hberty is of particular importance in the present Case."^ 



The bearing of that question upon the questions presented in this 

 Case will more fully appear in the discussion which arose between 

 the United States and Great Britain with respect to the Fortune 

 Bay case in the year 1878, which is reviewed below. 



The Fortune Bay Case. 



On January 6, 1878, barely a month and a half after the date of 

 the Hahfax award, a number of American fishermen, who were 

 engaged in taking fish with seines in Fortune Bay on the coast of 

 Newfoundland, ''were compelled, by a large and violent mob of the 

 inliabitants of Newfoundland, to take up their seines, discharge the 

 fish already inclosed, and abandon their fishery, and in one case at 

 least the seine was absolutely destroyed.".^ As appeared in the 

 subsequent investigation of the circumstances surrounduig this 

 incident, the fishermen using the seines were acting in the interests 

 of all the American fishing vessels in the harbor at that time, twenty- 

 two in number, and if they had been undisturbed the catch would have 

 been sufficient to load all of them with profitable cargoes. It further 

 appeared that the American vessels had been waiting at Fortune Bay 

 for several weefe for the expected arrival of schools of herring in that 

 Bay; and it so happened that the day of the arrival of these schools 

 was Sunday, on which, under the laws of Newfoundland, the New- 

 foundland fijshermen were prohibited from fishing.'^ 



The action of the Newfoundland fishermen in preventing thie 

 American fishermen from taking advantage of their long awaited 

 opportunity could hardly have been inspired by a respect for law 

 and order. Great Britain, however, in resisting the resulting claims 

 for damages, which were demanded by the United States on behalf 

 of the American fishing vessels, advanced the argument that the 

 Newfoundland law prohibiting Sunday fishing applied to the Ameri- 

 can as well as to the British fishermen in those waters, and that the 

 American fishermen were violating not only that law but another 

 law as well which prohibited the use of seines at the season of the 

 year when this incident occurred.*^ As bearing upon the intention 

 with which the laws referred to were adopted, it may be noted in 



a Appendix, p. 1109. c Appendix, pp. 651,666. 



b Appendix, p. 6G6. d Appendix, pp. 651, 667. 



