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following: no pretence of international law, bnt the special Treaty between Great Britain 

 and France, and afterwards they gave out licences for a nominal sum, as tliey said, for 

 the purpose of olitaiuinj:^ a recognition of tlieir rij^lit. They did not care,' they said 

 then, liow much tlie Americans fiwhed witliin the three miles, but they wislied them to pay 

 a " nominal sum for a license," as a recofjnition of the rij;ht. Well, the " nominal sum " 

 was 50 cents a to)i; but, by-and-by, the Colonial Parliament tlioujjht that nothing 

 would 1)0 a " nominal sum " unless it was 1 dollar a ton ; .and, at last, they considered that 

 the best possible " nominal sum " was 2 dollars a ton. 



But Her Majesty's Government took a very difTerent view of that subject, and 

 wherever tliere has been an attempt to exchide American fishermen from the three-mile 

 line, tliere has been a burden of expense on IJlrcat Britain, a conflict between the Colonial 

 Department at London and the provincial autiiorilies here — Great Britain always taking 

 the side of moderation, and the Provincial Parliaments tlie side of extreme claim and 

 nntiriu!:;; persecution. Tlien there was a difliculty in setlling: tlie three-mile line. What 

 is tliree miles ? It cannot l)e measured out as upon the land. It is not staked out or 

 buoyed out. It depends upon tlie eye-siglit and judfZfmeiit of interested men, acting: under 

 every possible disadvantage. A few of the earlier witnesses called by my learned friends 

 for the Crown undertook to say that there was no ditficulty in ascertaining; the three- 

 mile line, but 1 happened to know better, and we called other witnesses, and at last 

 nobody pretended that tliere was not great difliculty. Why, for a person upon a vessel 

 at sea to determine the distance from shore, everything depends upon the height of the 

 land he is looking at. If it is very liigii, it will seem very much nearer than if it is low 

 and sandy. The state of the atmosphere affects it extremely. A mountain side on the 

 sliore may appear so near in the fortmoon that you feel that you can almost touch it with 

 your fingers' ends, while in the afternoon it is remote and shadowy, too far altogetlicr for 

 an expedition with an ordinary day's walk to reach ii. Now, every honest mariner 

 must admit that there is great difficulty in determining whetiier a vessel is or is 

 not within tliree miles of the sliore when she is fishing. But there is, furtlier, 

 another difliculty. "Three miles from the sliore " — what shore? When the shore is a 

 straight or curved line, it is not diilicult to measure it, but the moment you come to 

 bays, gulfs, and hariiimrs, then what is the shore ? Tlie headland rpiestion then arose, 

 and the provincial olhcials told us — the provinces by their acts, and the proper officers by 

 their prorlamatious, and the officers of their cutters, steam or sail — told our fishermen 

 upon tlii'ir (juarter-decks that " the shore " meant a line drawn from headland to head- 

 land, and they undertook to draw a line from the North Cape to the East Cape of Prince 

 Edward Isiaiul, and to say that "the shore" meant that line, and then they fenced 

 olf the Straits of Northumberland ; they drew another line from St. George's to the 

 Island of Cape Breton ; they drew their headland lines wherever fancy or interest led 

 them. And not only is it true that they drew thi-m at pleasure, but they made a most 

 extreme use of that pow(T. We did not suffer so much from the regular navy, but the 

 provincial otheers, wearing for the first time in their lives shoulder-straps, and put in 

 command of a vessel, " dressed in a little brief authority, played such fantastic tricks 

 before high heaven " as migiit at any uioment, but tliat it was averted by good fortune, 

 have iilunged the two countries into war. Why, that conflict between Palillo and Bigelow 

 amused us at tlie time, hut I think your Honours were shocked when you thought that, as 

 Patillo escajied, was luirsued, and the shots fired by his pursuers passed through his sail 

 and lore away part of his mast and enterfd the hull, if they had shed a drop of American 

 blood, it might " the multitudinous seas incarnadine " in war. Why, peojile do not go to 

 war solely for interest, but for honour, and everyone fi'lt relieved, drew a freer breath, 

 when lie learned that no such fatal result followed. None of us would like to take ilio 

 risk of hiving an American vessel beyond the three miles, but supposed to be within 

 it, or actually within it, for an innocent purpose, attacked by a British cutter, or 

 attacked because she was within three miles from a lu.'adland line, and blood shed in 

 the encounter. Now, Great Britain felt that, and felt it more than the provinces did 

 because she had not the same mon<;y interest to blind her to the greatness of the 

 peril. 



The results of the seizures were very bad. In the case of the "White Fawn," tried 

 before .ludge llazeiiat New Brunswick, he says, "This tact has not been accimnted for, 

 that so long a timi; has elapsed from the time of the s(;izure until the case was l)rouglit 

 into Court;" so that, although he diseliarged the ship as iniioeent, the crew were (tis- 

 perscd, (he voyage vsas broken up, and yet no answer was made to tiiat pertinent impiiry 

 of his Honour, it was a very common thing to hold vessels seized until it beeanie 

 immaterial to the owners, almosi, wliether they were finally released or finally convicted. 

 JVly learned friend. Judge Foster, laid before your Honoursa Nova Scotia Staluleof 1830, 



