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which it secured to us. And that loads me to say what, perhaps, 1 should liave other- 

 wiiic tbrijoltcn, that in estimatiiii;' the value to tlie people of the I nited States ot" the 

 ri^ht to pursue tlieir lisluries close to the shore in certain reu;iiins, you are not to 

 eatiniato \vliat \\(! have uained in peace, in security t'ron\ irriluiion, t'roni seizures, and 

 from pursuit. Those are tlie acts and operatimis ol tlie (ipi)osile party. It is llir value 

 of the ri^iit to (isli tlien- alone that you are to consider. Why, il' you pay to an or;;an- 

 grindcr a sliiUiii;; to go out of your street wlien there is sickness in your house, it docs not 

 follow that his music was wortii that price. Nobody woidd thini< ul' considering; liiat a 

 test of tlie value of his music, if a tliird jierson was apiiointed to determine wiiat il was. 

 So, here; what we were williui; to do to •;el rid of a luiisance, of irritation, of daufjers of 

 war,of honest mistakes, and opportunities tor j)retend('d mistakes— what we were wiiliny 

 to pay for all that is no proof of the iiricc at whicli we set the mere liberty of being 

 there peacefully and in the exercise of a right. 



The people of the I'niteil States can never look upon this exclusion, under the 

 Treaty ot 181)S, as anythin<j more than a voluntary surn iider on their i)art \h\- a Treaty 

 purpose, over a certain limited region, of what they believed to be their rigiit — their 

 right by virtue, as I had the honour to say to this tribunal yestt-rday, of the grants in 

 the Charters of Massachusetts and the other New Kngland Provinces, of an unlimited 

 right to fish over all this region — a right which we won by our own bloo.l and valour ; the 

 whole privilege beinj^- contested between llie Krench and Knglish, all of whicli mi<;ht 

 have become Kreneii, I do not think I am going too far in saying, had it not been tor 

 the prowess and ! an -rmination of New Kngland. 1 remin<led jour Honours _\eslerday 

 of instances in which we had contributed to force out the French from this country, to 

 make it liritish, to make the .-Jeas Uritisli seas, and the lislieries Briti.sh fisheries, in trust 

 for the Crown and for ourselves. 1 mav add oiii^ case, more interesting and bearing 

 directly upon this Province, and that i.s, the final expulsion of the French, which was 

 carried out at Grand I'reand its neighbourhood ; and whatever of reproach may be cast 

 upon those who did it by the harp of the ]ioet, or the pen of the iihilanlhiopist, I cannot 

 but remember that that reproach must be borne mainly by my own Massachusetts. For 

 it was Massachusetts troops and Massachusetts ships, uiuler a Massachusetts commander, 

 that forced those people away from their shores. Hut tlu: historian will not tbrgel that, 

 whatever may have been the right or the wrong of that proceeding, its result w.-is that 

 it put an end ibr ever to the machinations of the Krcncli with the Indians against the 

 peace and security of tliis Province, and the Province of ("ape Breton, and left them and 

 their apiiiirtenances wholly and entirely Ib-ilisli. 



Your Honours will be glad to know thai 1 am now going to take up the last point 

 of importance in our case, and that is, the value of the free trade which this Treatv has 

 given to all the people of llie Provinces. Heeollect what that value is. It is true that 

 in 1S71, when we made this Treaty, our duties uere 2 dollars a barrel (tn mackerel 

 and I dollar a barrel on lierrinir; but our riglit was to make these duties whatev(?r 

 we pleasrd — alisolute exclusion it' 2 dollars and 1 dollar did not exclude. We had 

 a right to legislai<' with a simple view to our own interests in that matter, and neither 

 the Crown nor the Dominion c(iul(l be heard on the iloor of Congress. Hut we have 

 bound (Uir hands, we Jiave pledged ourselves that we will put no diitifs on any of their 

 fish of any kind — frr.-ji or cured, salted or otherwise — or tiieir fish-oil. They may, so 

 long as the Tn aly lasts, be iiii]iorl(Hl into any part of ilie United States without any 

 incumbrance or dut\ wlialever. Now, that the I'nited States is the chief market tor 

 the mackerel ot' these Provinces 1 supjiose it cannot be necessary for me to refer to any 

 eviilence to remind your Honours. '\Ve have had before us the merchants who deal 

 most largely in Prince Kdward Island. Mr. Hall and Mr. Myriek. and we have had two 

 or three or mia-e merchants of Halifax, who did nol come here for the purpose of 

 testifying against their own country and in favour of the United States; and from all 

 this evidence U appears conclusively that, with the exce))tion of some inferior mackerel, 

 ill-pressed or ill-cured, and not much the worse for heat, that may lie sent to tin- West 

 Indies to be consumed by slaves, the entire product goes to the United States. There 

 is no market for it in Canada ]iroper; and the merchants here, the dealers in fish, lie 

 awaiting the telegrajilee signal from Hoston or New York to send there whatever 

 of best mackerel there is, now that they are fre(> from duty, which is .saved to them. I 

 therefore think 1 may safrly pass over tlie testimony introduced to prove that the United 

 Slates is the great market. Some statistics were pre|)ared to show tliat a duly of 

 2 dollars a iiarrd was prohibitory. In m\ view, il is (|tiile iiiimaterial. 1 caiuiot see Jiow 

 it is malerial, b; cause, having the power to lay any (iiities wi; pleased, we have agreed 

 to lay none; and the benelit to (ireat Britain, to these Provinces, and to this Dominion, 

 is the ob'iuning of a pledi^i- not to put on any duly, high or low, from a people who had 



