80 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



In 1686, a treaty was entered into between Great Britain and 

 France, by which it was agreed that (British Case App., p. 6) 



" the King of Great Britain's subjects shall not drive their com- 

 merce and trade, nor fish in the havens, bays, creeks, roads, shoals 

 or places, which the most Christian King holds or shall hereafter 

 hold in America; and in like manner, the most Christian King's 

 subjects shall not drive their commerce and trade, nor fish in the 

 havens, bays, creeks, roads, shoals or places, which the King of 

 Great Britain posseses or shall hereafter possess in America." 



No one can suppose that the parties to this treaty intended to 

 confine the word " bays " to sheets of water not more than 6 miles 

 wide. No valid distinction can be suggested between Chesapeake 

 Bay and the bays in question in the present case. 



In the treaty of 1763, between Great Britain, France, and Spain, 

 there is the following (British Case, App., p. 8) : 



" His Britannic Majesty consents to leave to the subjects of the 

 Most Christian King the liberty of fishing in the Gulf of St. L;-w- 

 rence, on condition," &c. 



This treaty recognised that, by her acquisition of all territory sur- 

 rounding it, Great Britain acquired dominion over the whole of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. Great Britain " consents," therefore, that 



French fishermen shall have liberty of fishing in the Gulf. 

 91 A most pertinent treaty is that of 1778 between France and 



the United States (United States Case, App., p. 92) : 



" The Most Christian King's subjects shall not fish in the havens, 

 bays, creeks, roads, coasts or places which the said United States 

 hold or shall hereafter hold; and in like manner the subjects, people 

 and inhabitants of the said United States shall not fish in the havens, 

 bays, creeks, roads, coasts or places which the Most Christian King 

 possesses or shall hereafter possess ; " 



It will be observed that both this clause and the clause in the 

 treaty of 1818 are prohibitions of fishing in bays. In the United 

 States-French treaty, France agreed that her people should not fish 

 in United States bays. In the United Kingdom-United States 

 treaty, the United States renounced all right to fish in British bays. 

 The cases are in that respect identical. And it is, therefore, most 

 pertinent to ask whether French fishermen had a right to fish in 

 Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, the harbour of New York, and 

 the other United States bays, whose headlands are more than 6 miles 

 apart. If they had not, it was because those waters are " bays," 

 within the meaning of the treaty of 1778. And, if so, the United 

 States can hardly argue that the word was used with different 

 meaning, five years afterwards, in the United Kingdom-United 

 States treaty of 1783. 



