JAMES II. AND AFTER 531 



Other and later examples of the tendency alluded to, of 

 fixing definite limits for the rights of the state in the seas 

 washing its territories, may be found in the international 

 treaties, which were concluded during the eighteenth century, 

 concerning the rights of fishery on the coasts and islands of 

 the British possessions in North America, a region of the world 

 which has furnished numerous examples of agreements of 

 the kind. One of these, in 1686, has been already mentioned. 

 By the great treaty of Utrecht in 1713, following Marl- 

 borough's successful campaigns on the Continent, France ceded 

 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Great Britain; but cer- 

 tain concessions were made to French fishermen, who, of 

 course, previously enjoyed the right of fishing there, which 

 subsequently for a long period formed a fertile source of 

 trouble and dispute. In addition to certain privileges as to 

 landing and drying fish, French subjects were to be free to 

 fish in the seas, bays, and other places to thirty leagues from 

 the south-east coast of Nova Scotia. 1 Half a century later, 

 by the treaty of Paris in 1763, at the conclusion of the seven 

 years' war, Canada was ceded to Great Britain, and the con- 

 cessions to French fishermen at Newfoundland were confirmed, 

 with some modifications. Liberty of fishing was also granted 

 to them in the Gulf of St Lawrence, subject to the condition 

 that they did " not exercise the said fishery, except at a 

 distance of three leagues from all the coasts belonging to 

 Great Britain, as well those of the continent as those of 

 the islands situated in the said Gulf of St Lawrence." On 

 the coasts of the island of Cape Breton, outwith the Gulf, 

 they were not to fish within fifteen leagues of the shore. 2 

 These provisions concerning the fishery in the Gulf of St 

 Lawrence and at Cape Breton were confirmed twenty years 



1758 ; Aug. 1761 ; April 1762. Martens, Causes Celebres, i. 359-398 ; ii. 122-131. 

 Beaujon, Hist. Dutch Fisheries, 479. A full account of the proceedings in 1738-40 

 is said by Beaujon to be contained in the memorials of Mauricius, who was the 

 Dutch ambassador at Hamburg at the time, and was closely connected with the 

 negotiations ; they are contained in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek at The Hague. 



1 Art. xii. " D'exercer la peche dans lesd. mere, bayes, et autres endroits a trente 

 lieues pres des costes de la nouvelle Ecosse au sudest, en commencant depuis 1'isle 

 appellee vulgairement de Sable," &c. Dumout, Corps Diplomatique, VIII. i. 341. 



2 Treaty of Paris, 10th February 1763, Art. v. Hertslet, Collection, i. 274. 

 Martens, RecueU, i. 109. 



