APPENDIX. • 31 



The contention on behalf of the appellants in the Court below 

 on this point went further than saying that taking fish out of a 

 net was only a part of the act of fishing, and it was urged that the 

 fishing was complete before the fish were taken out of the net. 

 It was contended that the act of fishing is complete when in line 

 fishing the fish is hooked, or in net fishing, is surrounded by a net. 

 According to this contention, a fish would be caught as soon as 

 it is hooked, which would, I think, be found to be contrary to 

 experience. 



It is submitted that fish caught in a net on the high seas and still 

 in the water are not in the possession in any sense of the fisherman ; 

 but assuming that they are to be so regarded, and that property 

 in them is thereby vested in the fisherman his title is qualified, a 

 special interest liable to be divested before they are killed by the 

 escape of the fish. 



See Blackstone's Commentaries, loth Edition, page 403. 



Kent's Commentaries Text Book Series, page 348. 



It is submitted that the acquiring of this special and very pre- 

 carious right is not, in the ordinary use of language, the completion 

 of the act of fishing, but that something more remains to be done 

 before the fishing is completed and the fish finally taken. 



It is laid down by Vattel that "in the interpretation of treaties, 

 " compacts and promises, we ought not to deviate from the common 

 " use of the language, unless we have very strong reasons for it." 



But considering the words used in connection with the context 

 and subject matter will very strongly support the construction 

 contended for on behalf of the respondent, it may be noted that 

 laws passed for the protection of the public such as revenue laws 

 are not to be regarded as penal laws in the sense of requiring them 

 to be constructed with strictness in favour of the defendant. "They 

 "are regarded rather in their remedial character as intended to 

 "prevent fraud, supreme public wrong and promote the jMiblic 

 " good and are to be so construed as to most effectually accomplish 

 "those objects." 



Maxwell on Statutes, 2nd Edition, page 351. 

 See Chiquot Champagne 3 Wallace 145. 

 Endlich on Statutes, Section 340. 



Looking first at the first article of the Treaty of 1818, which 

 is recited in 59, (leorg(; III, Chapter 38 (Imperial), and will lie 

 found in extenso in Stockton's Admiralty Reports, page 204; 

 it recites that differences have arisen in reference to the liberty 

 claimed by Americans to take, dry and cure fish in liic territorial 



