813 



to lay, — That wc believed that what Great Britain or the Provinces received by a 

 guarantee on tlw part of tlio United States that no duty shall be laid on fish or fish-oil 

 coining froni the Provinces into llie United States lor the period in qnestion exceeded in 

 value what we received l)y a guarantee from Great Britain that we might fish within the 

 limits in these British waters ; tliat is all i wish to set right. There is nothing in the 

 argument of the learned Counsel whieli gives us the least right to claim a reply. I think 

 that ho has contiued himself' strictly and Louourably witluu the limits of the pleadings. 



No. VIII. 



Pituil Argwntnts on beha\f of Her Britannic Majesty, by Mr. Doulre. 



Friday, November 16, 1877. 

 The Conference met. 



Mr. Doutre addressed the Commission as follows : — 



With the permission of your Excellency and your Honours, I will lay before this 

 Tribunal, in support of Her Majesty's claim some" observations, which 1 will make as 

 brief as the natun' of the case admits, and in order tiiv:« these remarks may be 

 intelligible, without reference to many voluminous documents, 1 solicit your indulgence 

 while going once more over grounds familiar to tiie Conmiission. 



As soon as the war, resulting in the independence of tlio confederated colonies, came 

 to an end, tljc United Stales sougiit for a recognition of their new existence from Great 

 Britain, and the; Treaty of Paris of 1783 was agreed to. As an incident to the main 

 object of that Treaty, Article III states : — *' The people of the United States shall 

 continue to enjoy unmolested tlie right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank 

 and on all other banks of Newfoundland ; also in tiic Gulf of St. Lawrence, and at all 

 other places in the sea, wlicrc the inhabitants of both countries nsed at any time 

 heretolbro to fisli ; ami also the inhabitants of ihc United States shall have liberty to 

 take fisii of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as Britisli fishermen 

 shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on that island), and also on the coast, bays 

 and creeks of all otiier of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America ; and the 

 American fishermen shall liave the liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled 

 bays, harbours and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as 

 the same shall remain unsettled ; but so soon as the same, or either of them, shall be 

 settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dr^ or cure fish at such settlement, 

 without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or 

 possessors of the ground." 



We have heard from counsel representing the United States very extraordinary 

 assumptions, both historical and political, concerning the circumstances imder whicli this 

 Treaty was adopted. At the distance of nearly a ccnturj', fancy can suggest much to 

 literary or romantic siicakers, especially when it concerns a subject on which they are 

 not called upon to give any evidence — on which they can build an interesting record of 

 their own opinions, before this Commission. We had to deal with a >ery complex 

 matter of business— one which probably has never engaged the research of a judicial 

 tribunal — and we tliougiil this was enough for the cflbrts of humble men of business, 

 such as we claim to be. Our friends on the American side tnafed us with a poetical 

 account of the capture of tiie Golden Fleece at Louisburg, by Massachusetts heroes, in 

 order to sliow how tiieir statesmen of a previous generation had misconceived the nature 

 of their primitive, conquered and indisputable right to our fisheries, without indemnity 

 in any shape. British historians, statesmen or orators would probably have little weight 

 with our friends in their estimate of Treaty negotiations. With the hope of obtaining a 

 hearing from our opponents let us speak through the mouth of American diplomatists or 

 statesmen. 



It will strike every one that in the concessions contained in our Treaty of 1 783, 

 Great Britain did not extend to American fisliermen all the rights belonging to her own 

 subjects in these fisheries — a fact sufiieient in itself to preserve to Great Britain lier 

 sovereignty in that part of her dominions. 



When tlie war of 1812 was brought to an end, tlie United States had not lived long 

 enougli, as an independent naticm, to create that phiad of eminent jurists, publicists and 

 Secretaries of State, who have since brought tliem up to the standard of the oldest 

 cuustitutcd Slates of Europe. The characteriislic clutioa of the nation who had but 



