QUESTION ONE. 37 



ing upon all reasonable and suitable regulations for the due control 

 of the fishermen of both countries in the exercise of their rights, but 

 this Government can not permit the exercise of these rights, to be 

 subject to the will of the Colony of Newfoundland." 



No insuperable difficulty has ever been experienced so far as 

 history records in respect of matters of joint administration by 

 nations, nor in the management and control of property rights held 

 by individuals in common under municipal law. Where the au- 

 thority is admittedly joint, self-interest, aided by a spirit of reason- 

 able concession, should produce agreement. A common right, there- 

 fore, between two civilized nations will never be destroyed, nor 

 its fair, mutual enjoyment, seriously impaired, for want of common 

 accord between them respecting fair, just, and proper regulations. 



GBAMMATICAL AND COLLOQUIAL MEANING OP " IN COMMON." 



The English lexicographer recognized as a standard authority in 

 Great Britain and the United States in 1818, was Johnson, whose 

 great work was first published in 1755 and passed through a number 

 of editions, ending with an American edition published by Moses 

 Thomas in Philadelphia in 1818. 



The definition of the word common, when employed as a descrip- 

 tive adjective in connection with property or property rights, given 

 in each and every edition of Johnson's Dictionary, including the 

 American edition of 1818, was, " belonging equally to more than one." 

 The same definition of the word is found in Bailey, 1764; Fleming. 

 1771; Kenrick, 1773; Ash, 1775; Barclay, 1782; Sheridan, 1790; 

 Perry, 1805, and Walker, 1807. 



As early as 1735 the word common had come to have substantially 

 this meaning attached to it. In Defoe's Dictionary published in that 

 year, the word is defined : " Ordinary ; public; also that which belongs 

 to all alike." 



The words, in common, as expressing a composite idea or mean- 

 ing, were also defined by Johnson and followed by other standard 

 lexicographers of that day. In the first and each succeeding edition 

 of Johnson is found: 



In common: 



1. Equally to be participated in by a certain number. 



2. Equally with another; indiscriminately. 



U. S. Counter Case, p. 40. 



