PEKIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 



915 



Provided, however, That the 

 limits, restrictions, and regula- 

 tions which may be agreed upon 

 by the said commission shall not 

 be final, nor have any effect, until 

 so jointly confirmed and declared 

 by the United States and Her 

 Majesty the Queen of Great Brit- 

 ain, either by treaty or by laws 

 mutually acknowledged. 



ARTICLE II. 



Pending a definitive arrange- 

 ment on the subject, Her Britan- 

 nic Majesty's Government agree 

 to instruct the proper colonial 

 and other British officers to ab- 

 stain from seizing or molesting 

 fishing vessels of the United 

 States unless they are found 

 within 3 marine miles of any of 

 the coasts, bays, creeks, and har- 

 bors of Her Britannic Majesty's 

 dominions in America, there fish- 

 ing, or to have been fishing or 

 preparing to fish within those 

 limits, not included within the 

 limits within which, under the 

 treaty of 1818 the fishermen of 

 the United States continue to re- 

 tain a common right of fishery 

 with Her Britannic Majesty's 

 subjects. 



ARTICLE III. 



For the purpose of executing 

 Article I of the convention of 

 1818, the Government of the 

 United States and the Govern- 

 ment of Her Britannic Majesty 

 hereby agree to send each to the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence a national 

 vessel, and also one each to cruise 

 during the fishing season on the 

 southern coasts of Nova Scotia. 



This article would suspend the 

 operation of the statutes of Great 

 Britain and of Canada, and of 

 the provinces now constituting 

 Canada, not only as to the vari- 

 ous offenses connected with fish- 

 ing, but as to customs, harbors, 

 and shipping, and would give to 

 the fishing vessels of the United 

 States privileges in Canadian 

 ports which are not enjoyed by 

 vessels of any other class or of 

 any other nation. Such vessels 

 would, for example, be free from 

 the duty of reporting at the cus- 

 toms on entering a Canadian har- 

 bor, and no safeguard could be 

 adopted to prevent infraction of 

 the customs laws by any vessel 

 asserting the character of a fish- 

 ing vessel of the United States. 



Instead of allowing to such ves- 

 sels merely the restricted privi- 

 leges reserved by the convention 

 of 1818, it would give them 

 greater privileges than are en- 

 joyed at the present time by any 

 vessels in any part of the world. 



This article would deprive the 

 courts in Canada of their juris- 

 diction, and would vest that 

 jurisdiction in a tribunal not 

 bound by legal principles, but 

 clothed with supreme authority 

 to decide on most important 

 rights of the Canadian people. 



It would submit such rights to 

 the adjudication of two naval offi- 



