71 



interest of a peaceful settlement," but was declined by the British Commissioners as 

 inadequate. It is now shown that the contention of the British Commissioners 

 regarding the "great value" of these fisheries was well founded, and that the 

 privileges subsequently accorded by the Treaty of Washington as in part compen- 

 satory are of no appreciable value. 



It must be admitted, therefore, that the concessions made by Great Britain in 

 the interests of American fishermen, quite irrespective of their commercial value, 

 arc indeed extremely valuable to the United States. Probably, it will be said that in 

 this respect, there is an international gain. But it seems impossible for British 

 subjects, if unmolested in iheir rights and privileges, to occasion any such irritation 

 as the United States' Commissioners expressed their anxiety to avoid. The provo- 

 cation would be confined entirely to foreign intruders, seeking their own gains at the 

 cost and injury of British fishermen, thereby, perhaps, involving both nations in 

 serious difHcultics and incalculable expense. The duty (with its attentlant cost) of 

 guarding against any such vexations on the part of United States' citizens, devolves 

 solely on the American Government. If, to avoid the onerous responsibility of 

 fulfilling it, and at the same time to secure for the inhabitants and trade of the 

 country the concurrent use of these valuable privileges, the Government of the 

 United States requires to pay fair equivalents, it certainly cannot be expected that 

 Great Britain would abate the just estimation placed on them because of a mere 

 assertion by the United States, as beneficiary, " that their value is over-estimated," 

 or that any further measure of concession is due to international amity. Great 

 Britain claims to have fully reciprocated the desire expressed by the United States' 

 Commissioners; and being in possession of proprietary rights of special importance 

 and value to herself, the mutual enjoyment of which was voluntarily sought on 

 behalf of United States' citizens, we are justified in asking the present Commission 

 to consider these circumstances in determining the matter thus referred to equitable 

 assessment under the present Treaty. 



Chapter III. — Advantages derived by British Subjects, 



1. Liberty of fishing in United States' waters, and other privileges connected therewith. 



The privileges granted to British subjects by Article XIX of the Treaty of 

 Washington are the same right of fishing and landing, for purposes connected with 

 fishing, in United States' waters, north of the 39th parallel of north latitude, as are 

 granted to United States' citizens in British North American waters. It may at the 

 outset be stated that this concession is absolutely valueless. 



That the several kinds of sea fishes formerly abundant on the north-eastern 

 sea-coasts of the United States have not merely become very scarce, but are in some 

 localities almost extinct, is an unquestionable fact. An exhaustive investigation 

 into the causes of their decline was commenced in 1871 by Professor Baird, the 

 Chief of the United States' Fisheries Commission, and is still in progress. This 

 eminently tiiorough and scientific investigator reports, substantially, that the failino- 

 supply of edible coast fishes is mainly due to overnetting and incessant fishing by 

 other means. These causes, joined to continuous havoc made by jji-edaceous fishes, 

 have considerably exhausted the coast fisheries along the southern and north-eastern 

 seaboard of the United States. The Fishery Commissioners of the State of Maine, 

 in their Reports lor 1872-4, endorse the odicial statements of the Federal Commis- 

 sioner, that the sea fishes on the coasts of New England have "almost entirely 

 disappeared," and that •' the people are obliged to resort to far distant regions to 

 obtain the supply which formerly could be secured almost within sight of their 

 homes." 



The following extracts from Professor Baird's Report, published in 1873, are 

 conclusive : — 



" In view of the facts adduced in reference to the shore fisheries, there can be no 

 hesitation in accepting the statement that there has been an enormous diminution 

 in their number, although this had already occurred to a considerable degree, with 

 some species, by the beginmng of the present century." 



"The testimony everywhere, with scarcely an exception, both from line-men and 

 trappers, was that the whole business of fishing was pretty nearly at an end, and 

 that it would scarcely pay parties to attempt to continue the work on a largo scale 

 in 1873." 



When the above statements are fairly considered, and when we also consider 

 that the onlv remedy for this state of decline is to diminish the numbers and restrict 

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