QUESTION SEVEN. 259 



accorded to the inhabitants of the first country whereby they have 

 also the right to enter the same jurisdiction for the purpose of trade. 

 The question is whether these inhabitants, when exercising the treaty 

 liberty, are precluded from enjoying at the same time these trading 

 privileges; or, when enjoying such privileges, are prohibited from 

 exercising the treaty liberty. In other words, the question is whether, 

 as to the matter of commercial privileges now or hereafter .accorded, 

 there is anything in the treaty of 1818 which justifies a discrimina- 

 tion by Great Britain against the inhabitants of the United States 

 who are exercising the liberty granted by that treaty. The issue pre- 

 sented by the Question is formulated in the British Case, with sub- 

 stantial exactness in the closing part of the statement of the conten- 

 tion of Great Britain. 

 The contention begins: 



Great Britain contends that American fishermen can not claim as 

 of right to exercise any liberties in British territorial waters, unless 

 those liberties were granted by the treaty of 1818 ; that no commercial 

 privileges were so granted. 



It should be observed that in the above extract Great Britain con- 

 fuses commercial privileges with liberties under the treaty, but, as 

 pointed out in the Counter Case of the United States in the discus- 

 sion of Question Three, the only liberties referred to in the treaty are 

 the liberties of taking, drying, and curing fish. This failure to dis- 

 tinguish between treaty liberties and commercial privileges indicates, 

 in the view of the United States, a misapprehension on the part of 

 Great Britain of the correct meaning of the Question. 



As above stated, the United States does not contend that general 

 commercial privileges were granted by the treaty of 1818 and denies 

 that they are founded upon it. But the second part of the British 

 contention : 



And that the exercise of commercial privileges by American fish- 

 ing vessels would be contrary to the intention of that treaty 



raises the question with exactness, if the words "American fishing 

 vessels" are understood to mean "the inhabitants of the United 

 States whose vessels resort to the treaty coasts for the purpose of 

 fishing." 



Certain other observations are suggested by a reading of Question 

 Seven. 



British Case, 127. 



