THE WHALE FISHERY. 125 



" France also sought the aid of Spain, and that power was given to understand that in the final 

 treaty of peace between the United States and England, they, too, would necessarily have some 

 voice. Vergenues, in October (1778), stated, as the only stipulations which France would require, 

 that in the final negotiations the treaty of Utrecht must be either wholly continued or entirely 

 annulled ; that sLre must be allowed to restore the harbor of Dunkirk ; and that .she must be allowed 

 the coast of Newfoundland, from Cape Bouavista to Cape St. John, with the exclusive fishery 

 from Cape Bonavista to Point Riche.'* By a treaty made-w4th Spain, April 12, 1779, France 

 bound herself to attempt the invasion of Great Britain or Ireland, and to share only with Spain 

 the North American fisheries, in case she succeeded in driving the English from Newfoundland. 



" These discussions (as to the terms to be embraced in the final treaty of peace) were necessary 

 pending the question of an alliance with France and Spain against England. When the subject 

 of frontiers was brought up, France, while yielding all claim to the provinces of Canada and Nova 

 Scotia, which for years had been hers, joined heartily with Spain in opposing the manifest desire 

 of the Americans to secure them. Two States persisted in the right and policy of acquiring them, 

 but Congress, as a body, deferred to the French view of the subject. ' With regard to the fisheries, 

 of which the interruption formed one of the elements of the war, public law had not yet been 

 settled.' By the treaty of Utrecht, France agreed not to fish within 30 leagues of the coast of 

 Nova Scotia; and by that of Paris, not to fish within 15 leagues of Cape Breton. Moreover, 

 New England at the beginning of the war had, by act of Parliament, been debarred from fishing 

 on the banks of Newfoundland. * * * ' The fishery on the high seas,' so Vergeunes expounded 

 the law of nations, 'is as free as the sea itself, and it is superfluous to discuss the right of the 

 Americans to it. But the coast fisheries belong of right to the proprietary of the coast . Therefore 

 the fisheries on the coasts of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, of Canada, belong exclusively to the 

 English ; and the Americans have no pretensions whatever to share in them.'t In vain the 

 United States urged that the colonies, almost exclusively, had improved the coast fisheries, and 

 considered that immemorial and sole improvement was practical acquisition. In vain they insisted 

 that New England men, and New England money, and New England brains had effected the first 

 conquest of Cape Breton, and were powerful aids to the subsequent conquest of Nova Scotia and 

 Canada, and hence they had acquired at least a perpetual joint propriety. To their arguments 

 Vergenues replied that the conquests were made not for the colonies but for the crown, and when 

 Ne'.v England dissolved its allegiance to that crown she renounced her right to the coast fisheries. 

 In the end the United States were obliged to succumb; they had asked aid from foreign powers, 

 and they must yield, so far as was practicable, to the demands those powers made. These conces- 

 sions were a portion of the price of independence. 



"A committee f was appointed by Congress to definitely arrange upon what terms the future 

 treaty of peace with England should be'fiually consummated, and in February, 1779, they reported 

 that. Spain manifested a disposition to form an alliance with the United States, hence indepen- 

 dence, was an eventual certainty. On the question of fishing they reported that the right should 

 belong properly to the United States, France, and Great Britain in common. This portion of the 

 report was long under discussion in Congress, and it was finally voted that the common right of 

 the United .States to fish ' on the coasts, bays, and banks of Newfoundland and Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence, the Straits of Labrador, and Belle Isle should in no case be given up.' Under a vote to 



" * Banci-ofi's U. S, x, p. IH4." " t Bancroft's U. S., x, pp. 210-11." 



'{Gouvenifiir Morris, ol'Xuw York ; Burke, of North Carolina ; Withnrspoon, of New Jersey; Samuel Adams, of 

 Mnssiielmsetts, .,,) Smith, of Virginia. (Bancroft's U. S., x,p.213.)" 

 " $ Bancroft's U. S., x, p. S>13." 



