440 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



custom and usage of each individual nation as shown by 

 their Treaties and their general and time honored practice. 



The well known words of BYNKEESHOEK might be very 

 appropriately recalled in this connection when so many 

 and divergent opinions and authorities have been recited: 

 "The common law of nations," he says, "can only be 

 learnt from reason and custom. I do not deny that au- 

 thority may add weight to reason, but I prefer to seek it 

 in a constant custom of concluding treaties in one sense 

 or another and in examples that have occurred in one 

 country or another. (Questiones Jure Publici, Vol. 1, 

 Cap. 3). 



It is to be borne in mind in this respect that the Tribunal 

 has been called upon to decide as the subject matter of 

 this controversy, the construction to be given to the fishery 

 Treaty of 1818 between Great Britain and the United 

 States. And so it is that from the usage and the practice 

 of Great Britain in this and other like fisheries and from 

 Treaties entered into by them with other nations as to 

 fisheries, may be evolved the right interpretation to be 

 given to the particular convention which has been sub- 

 mitted. In this connection the following Treaties may be 

 recited : 



Treaty between Great Britain and France. 2nd August, 

 1839. It reads as follows : 



Article IX. The subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall 

 enjoy the exclusive right of fishery within the distance of 

 3 miles from low water mark along the whole extent of the 

 coasts of the British Islands. 



It is agreed that the distance of three miles fixed as the 

 general limit for the exclusive right of fishery upon the 

 coasts of the two countries, shall, with respect to bays, 

 the mouths of which do not exceed ten miles in width, be 

 measured from a straight line drawn from headland to 

 headland. 



