9 



coniskleratiunn cannot he utherunae than seductive of the loijat 

 attuchiiient and personal enterprise of our seaboard population. 

 It discourages the ind.ependent employment of Canadian Jish- 

 ing craft and provincial Jishernien. It tempts our Jishermen to 

 catch and sell their fish clandestinely to oivners of American 

 vessels, vjho can afterwards market them in thi United States, 

 free of duty, as Americati- caught fsh. This practice denwr- 

 alizes (yar population and accustoms them to violations of our 

 own laios. J 



Filially, the imperial authorities arranged with the admin- 

 istration at Washington the appointment of a joint British 

 and American Commission, " to treat of and discuss the mode 

 of settlimj the different questions which have arisen out of the 

 fisheries, an loell as those loliich affect the relatione of the 

 United States toivurds Her Majesty's possessio.::-; in North 

 America.'' The history of this Commission is well known. 

 The American Commissioners refused to consider a new re- 

 ciprocity treaty, and it was at last decided to admit the 

 United States to the inshore sea fisheries of British North 

 America, on condition that Canadian tish and tish-oil were 

 admitted free of duty into the American market, and that 

 Commissioners be appointed to determine the amount of any 

 compensation which in their opinion ought to be paid by 

 the Government of the United States in return for the priv- 

 ileges accorded to their citizens under the treaty. The 

 Commission met at Halifax in the summer of 1877. The 

 three Commissioners, M. Maurice Delfosse, Belgian Minis- 

 ter at Washington, Mr. E. H. Kellogg and 8ir A. T. Gait, 

 gave a hearing to the claims of the parties to the issue, and 

 after considering all the evidence submitted to them, a ma- 

 jority decided to award the sum of $5,500,000 in gold, 

 to be paid by the Government of the United States to the 

 Government of Great Britain, in accordance Avitli the pro- 

 visions of the Washington Treaty. Mr. Kellogg, however, 

 on the part of the United States, dissented from the award. 



However, the Americans luul no other alternative open to 

 them than to pay the money and carry out the provisions of 

 the Washington Treaty. The arrangement was advantage- 

 ous to both countries, since it set at rest a vexatious ques- 

 tion and stimulated commercial intercourse biitween them. 

 27ie American (jovernnient gave due notice of the repeal of 

 the treaty after it had been in existence for twelve years. 

 Consequently it e'xpired in July, 1885, and the treaty 

 of 1818 should have once more immediately govt^rned the 

 relations of the two nations. It was not thought advisable, 

 however, by either the Camulian or the Imperial Goveriimout 

 to exclude American tishermen at once from the tisheries, as 

 many of them vvt.'ie already in Canadian waters when the 

 treaty came to an end, uiiel had they been seized without 



