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all by 



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tlioir si^lil ; tliat thoy ^vil! cscajic from it. But th(; lawyer is so confirlent in the 



eagcriiiss of'tlic client for a lawsuit, llial, instead of eoncvaiiiin' Itiiust'lf, isml (akin;;- liim 

 unawares, he advertises himself and has a si^ii ot his jjlaco of l)usiness. Suppose s\ e were 

 tocomiiare it to tlie easeof alawycr wliohada general lieence to ])raetise law in all jiarts 

 of a , ureal eit\, hut not a inonoiH)l\. Kveryhody I'Ise had the same ri;;iil ; but he was 

 excluded from (akini,^ jiart in cases which should arise in a certain suburb of that city— 

 uol llu> i) St, not the rieiiest, not the most busimss-like — and wliich had lawyers of its 

 own liviiii;- there, accusioiued to th(! people, who assorted tlie ri^ht to conduct all the 

 lawsuits hat nii';ht arise in that district. What woidd it be wortli to a lawyer who had 

 the whole city for the field of lal)our — plenty to do, to iiavc his rif^lil extendeil into that 

 .subnrb? Wiiat would it be worth if that siiburl) was an indelinable one, not boiuidcd 

 by str(>ets, but by some moral description, about whieji tiiere would bo an eternal 

 dis]mte, ami about which the lawyer mi^lit bo in constant trouble with the policeman? 

 What woidd lie ils value ? Who can tell? Or, a physician or merchant? Suppose a 

 merchant is asked to pay for a licence to buy and sell, to keep a retailer's shop, every- 

 body else has tlu> same rii^ht that he has, and 'half llie people are doln^ it without any 

 lieence; but liu is asked lo pay for a licence. What is it worth to him? Why, not 

 nnieli, at l)est. IJut sujipose that the lieence was confined to tlie ri^ht lo deal in New- 

 foundland herriuf^? While everybody elsi; could deal with other lish, his lieence 

 extended his trade to Newfoundland herrinj? alone. Why, his answer would l)e, "There 

 are plenty of liorrin;^- from otlier j laces that 1 can deal with. Tliere is a lar<:;(! catch in 

 the v^uH'; there is a lar;;e catch o'l the Labrador shore, and what is it wortii to me, with 

 my hands full of business, lo be able tu extend it a little farther, and include the dealin^q; 

 with this particular kind of tish ? 



None of llie aualoi^ies seem to me to hold. Your Honours can do notIiin<;' else than 

 first to look at tlie practical result in tlie liands of business men; and the resul' "s this: 

 to tliose who live upon the shore and can go out day after day and return at mght, in 

 small lioats, iuvcslini;' but little capital, p)ini;' out whenever they see the mackerel, and 

 not ollierwis:', and couuiil; back to finish a day's work upon their farms, to them it is 

 profitable : for almost all tliey do is profit ; but to tliose wliu come from a distance, 

 recpiiriii'j: a week or a forlniglit to make (lie pr.ssage, iu lars^e vessels, wliieli the nature 

 of llie elimati- and of the seas riMjuin^s should be large and strong and well manned, who 

 have the deep sea before them, and innumerable banks and shoals, wlien^ they can fish 

 — to them the right to lisli a little n(;arer inshore is of very nuieli le.-s value. That is 

 the position of tlie American. The other is the position of the Knglislimau. And the 

 fact ihat we havi; steadily withdrawn, more and more, from that branch of the business. 

 Is a proof that it is of little value. 



'flieii, beyond that, 1 suppose, you nuist make some kind of estimate, tor I am not 

 f;;oing to argue thai the faculty is of no value. I suppose the right to exiend our lisheries 

 so far is of some value. 1 can find no fair test of it. Hut recollect, Mr. President and 

 GtMillemen, as [ say again, that it is liut a faculty, which would be utterly useless in the 

 hands of some }»eople. Why, it has l)een tbund utterly useless in the hands of the 

 inhabitants of this Dominion. What did they do with it until they took to their day and 

 night boat-fishing? What has become of their fishing vessels? Gone! The whole 

 inshore and outshore fishery became ot no value to them, until they substituted this boat- 

 fishing which we cannot enter into. Then having before you this very abstract right 

 or faculty, obligi-d to disconnect from it everything except tliis, that it is an extension of 

 the field over which we had a right to work, you can get nothing, I think, upon which 

 you can cast a valuation. Nor is it strictly analogous to a Held tor labour, hecause a 

 field for labour is a specific thing. When you buy it you know what it will produce; 

 and if you sow cerlain seed, you will get certain results; and then having deducted the 

 value ot your labour, and skill, and industry, and capital, and allowed yourself interest, 

 the residue, if any, is profit. That lU'peiuls upon tlie nature of the soil with which you 

 have been dealing. But nothing of that sort can be predicated of the free-swinnning 

 fish. They are here to-day and there to-morrow; they have no habitat; they arc 

 nobody's property, and nobody can grant them. 



[ have dealt with this subject as I said we were lo deal with it ; not to depreciate it 

 unreasonabl} , Init lo aiialy/;e il. and try tii find out lv,:w w() are to measure it. And 

 having analyy.ed it in this way— which I am sure is sulijeet to no objection, unless I 

 carry it to an exIreiiK' — the metluids whirli 1 have nsed in themselves are subject to no 

 objection; it cannot be .si range lo yovir Honours that the pi-ople of the United States 

 said, through their Government, that in securing from (!reat Hrilaiu her willuirawal of 

 this claim <if exclusion from these three mih-s, we diil il, uol for (he commercial or 

 intrinsic value of the right, so much as becauoc of the peace and freedom from irritation 

 [280] 2 q 2 



