357 



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given to tliem as an advanfiigo, and in return for it they luivo given ns a right to do one 

 tiling and nothing else, and under tliat Treaty, you have no right to value any other 

 advantiigo against us. 



I have now staled as concisely as I Imvc been al)le, the scoiie of our argument — the 

 prhiciples which we thinl< ouglit to lu> applied to the soUuion of tliis (iiicistion. Ah to 

 the facts, you will judge theui by the inipres^sion tjie witnesses have made upon your- 

 selves, and not h> aii\ rcpiTsentations of tlie impressions they liave made upon us. And 

 we fidly and graicl'ully recognise that )oii h^ive ♦bllowed the tesliniony witli patient and 

 intelligent attention. 



It seems to me (and tliis I would ..y ratlier to our friends on tiie other side than 

 to you) thai at the end of tliis long investigation, the true character of tiic ca.se is not 

 difficult to see. For a century the relations of the two countries on tiiis question have 

 been steadily imi>roviiig. \Ve iiave passed from the Jealous and restrictive policy of the 

 Convention of 1S|K to tiie free and lilteral system of the Treaty of 18.54, and with good 

 sen.se and good tee.ii)er it is impo.^sibie that we .should nve" go backward. The old 

 feuds and bitti-rnes-ses that s])i'ang from the R(!vohition have long since died out between 

 the two great nations, and in fact, for (Ireal Hritain. the original party in these 

 negotiations, has been sidjslituted a nation of neighbours and kinsmen, a nation working 

 witli us in tile \^•is(• and pros|)erous government of this vast Continent, which is our joint 

 possession; a nation, I may add, without presumption or oflence, whose existence and 

 whose growtii is one; of the direct consecpiences of our own creation, and whose future 

 prosperity is hound up with our own. In the Treaty of 1871 we have reached a settle- 

 ment which it depends upon your d(?cision to make the foundation of a linn and lasting 

 union. Putting aside for the moment the technical pleadings and testimony, what is the 

 complaint and claim of the Dominion? It is that where they have made of the fishery 

 a common property, opened, what tlu^y consider a valuable industry to the free use of 

 both countries, tliey are not met in the same spirit, and otlier industries, to them of equal 

 or greater value, are not op(>ned by us with the saaio friendly liberality ? I can find no 

 answer to this complaint, no reply to this demand, but that I'nrnished by the British case, 

 your own claim to receive! a money compensation in the place of what you think we 

 ought to have given. If a money compensation is recompense — if tiiese unequal 

 advantages, as you call them, can be equalised by a money payment, carefully, closely, 

 but !ide{piately estimated — then we have bought the right to the inshore iislieries, and 

 we can do what we will with our own. Then we owe no obligation to liberality of 

 sertimeiit or community of int(!rest ; then we are bound to no moderation in the use of 

 our jirivilege, and if purse-siining and trawling and gurry poison and eager competition, 

 destroy your fisliing, as \ou say they will, we have paid the damages beforehand; and 

 when at the end of twelve years we count the cost and find that we have paid 

 exorbitantly for that which was profitless, do you think we will be ready to renew the 

 trade, and where and how will we recover thi; loss? 



No. I believe that this Treaty as it stands executed to-day, interpreted in the 

 Lroad and liberal spirit in which it was conceived, is, whether you regard the interests 

 of tile Maritime Provinces or the wider interests of the whole Dominion, a greater 

 advantage in tlie present aed a larger promise in the future than any money award 

 which may belittle the large liberality of its provisions. As it stands, it means certain 

 progress. After tlie thorougli investigation which these interests have now for the first 

 time received, a few years, a few months of kindly feeling and common interest will 

 supply all its deficiencies and correct all its imperfections. 



And, therefore, do I most sincerely hope tlat your decision will leave it so, free to 

 do its own good work, and then we who have striven together, not, 1 am ghid to say, 

 either unkindly or ungenerously, to reach soni • just conclusion, will find in the future 

 which that Treaty contains the wisest solution, and we shall live to see all possible 

 differences which lo.iy have disturbed the natural relations of the two countries, not 

 remotely, but in the to-morrow of living history, not metaphorically but literally, " in the 

 deep bosom of the oceaa buried.'' 



