THE FISHERY CONVENTIONS 619 



elusive fishery limits of the two countries were defined as 

 in the convention of 1839, and the boundaries of the large 

 area in the Bay of Granville or Cancale, reserved for French 

 fishermen, were precisely the same as before. 1 The inter- 

 national " extra - territorial " regulations under this conven- 

 tion were much less detailed than in the previous one. Fishing 

 beyond the reserved limits was to be entirely free, with 

 the exception that a close-time for oysters was established 

 for the English Channel. The police regulations were to 

 apply to "the seas surrounding and adjoining Great Britain 

 and Ireland," and adjoining the Atlantic coast of France, 

 between the frontiers of Belgium and Spain. The conditions 

 under which the fishing -boats of one nation might enter 

 the exclusive fishery limits of the other, such as by stress 

 of weather, were carefully specified ; and each boat while 

 there was to hoist a blue flag, and was again to leave as 

 soon as the exceptional circumstances had ceased. The con- 

 vention was to continue in force for ten years, and after- 

 wards from year to year, terminable on twelve months' notice. 

 But, although confirmed by an Act of the British Parliament, 

 in 1868, 2 it was not ratified by France, and its provisions 

 never came into practical operation, except with regard to 

 the close-time for oysters, owing to certain objections raised 

 by the French Government. 3 Certain of its provisions, includ- 



1 Convention between Her Majesty and the Emperor of the French, relative to the 

 Fisheries in the seas between Great Britain and France. Signed at Paris, llth 

 November 1867. Art. I. " British fishermen shall enjoy the exclusive right of 

 fishery within the distance of three miles from low-water mark, along the whole 

 extent of the coasts of the British Islands ; and French fishermen shall enjoy the 

 exclusive right of fishery within the distance of three miles from low-water mark 

 along the whole extent of the coast of France, the only exception to this rule being 

 that part of the coast of France which lies between Cape Carteret and Point Meinga. 

 The distance of three miles fixed as the general limit for the exclusive right of fishery 

 upon the coasts of the two countries shall, with respect to bays, the mouths of 

 which do not exceed ten miles in width, be measured from a straight line drawn 

 from headland to headland. The miles mentioned in the present Convention are 

 geographical miles, whereof sixty make a degree of latitude." In neither of the 

 conventions was it expressly said that the ten-mile closing-line for bays was to be 

 measured from low-water mark of the headlands, but it was so declared in the Act 

 of 1843, 6& 7 Viet., c. 79. 



2 31 & 32 Viet., c. 45. 



3 London Gazette, 9th Feb. 1869. C. E. Fryer, The Relation of the State with 

 Fishermen and Fisheries. Parl. Papers, Commerc., 24 (1882), p. 1. 



