854 



Americnii (liiiii'K .. 



Caimdlnu ilntics , , . . , , ,, 



Tlio liiil.uici' la favour , " Ciliiiuli iiuiiM tlu'ivCoiT hr 



Dollni"*. 



l.l.SIM.l-.M 



IS7,;!S(I 



13,i;(-0,7t;s 



I'Mlio miittci' Ii;ul l)iTii sc'tiliil oil tiiiit basis, it does not, moiiii tliiit Citiacla would have 

 ii'CL'ivi'd l.'),(i(UI,7'iS dollars as n diri'ct toiiiiiriisaiioii paid iiit' iuT 'I'li'asiirs'. !;".t :u'i'ordiiiic 

 lo Ihc tlu ory adoptt'd by Aiiu'rifaii staUsiiuii it would have to co«t t'.it sum i<- iiavc; 

 ac<niiivd those fishini,' privili';;ev 



Jn the estimation ol the evidence addiieed on hotii sides I afhnit tiiat there is 

 iippaivnliy u conliicl of views and laet:*; hut when wei;;lu'd in the seah-s of an e\|iert, hy 

 a judj,'e or lawyer aeeustonied to winnow the ehall iVom tiie [^rain, the (hserepaneies would 

 turn out more lictilion^ than red. We Iiave built, by a mass of witnesses and doennients 

 unassailable, the foundation;; o! o\n' eluini. Jn many instances wc have o!)taini'd, from 

 Anierieiiii wi'itcM's, reports and witnesses, the conlinnation of that adi tanlial part of our 

 ease \>,, .li consists in the vahie of our lislieries, both to our people aid lor the Ainerifan 

 nation. The cc y/ro-Zc portion of our evidence, cnnsisliu'^' in the allidavits, has lieen lully 

 sustained by the oral evidence, (ienerally our witnesses have been selected unions' citizens, 

 whose station in lile juid well-establisiiid character, Ljave moral authority to their state- 

 ments; and we co\d(l ehalK n:;t' our friends on the American side to point out the 

 deposition of one witnes-; who had to correct lii-; e\aminatiiin In chief, when eross- 

 exainincd. Can we say the same thinu: of a lari;e number of American witnesses without 

 imputing to any of tlieni tlie desire of statiiiii,' an untruth .' 'I'hey have, as u rule, shown 

 themselves so completely blinded by their national prejudice.-, that they have, \niwittiiii;ly 

 to themselves, been intlnced to ltIvc to niost of their statements a colour which would Lave 

 been, in an ordinary coui't ot'justice, easily eoiistrmd as a (leterniined misrepresentation of 

 facts. As an example of the leekless manner in which some of the Ameiiciin witnesses 

 •lave spoken of the relative value of the lisliinu,- privileges granted by the Treaty of 

 AVashlngton, we refer to the L'lst American Athdavit, subscribed to by l''rank W. Friend 

 and Sydni'y I'riend, of the lirm of Sydney ['"riend and brothers, (Jloueesler, and sworn to 

 before one ol' the most important witnesses before this C'ounnissmn, David W . Low, 

 iS'otaiy Pid)lie and I'ostmastei' of Gloucester, v. ho could not ignoie, and perhaps wi'otc 

 himself this athdavit. In answer to the 3dth Question (p. .O.'}) : "The amount ol remis- 

 sion of duties on Canadian fish, and the free market of the United States for their mackerel 

 and other lisii, saving the expen-e of cutteis ; and the benefits of a. lar.'c ti'ade from the 

 i\merlean vessels; the admis-ii-.i to our coasts for inenhaden and mackerel, will aggreuate 

 an«a()vantage of nearly "J,!)!)!),!)!) I dollars a year in gross amount." I may here mention 

 the fact that two other witnesses wrote at fall length the amount, " 2t'U,()0(),()(l(i." 

 (Allidavits Ji^ and 19.) ''For this we obtain the privileges of jjursuing a llshery, which, 

 alter deducting cx[)enses, will not net. to the American lisliermen 10,(10tt dollars 

 a year. 



The United Stales' Agent and Counsel, who ha\e made a successful elibrt to exclude 

 from the consideration of this Commission the conmiercial advantages resulting from the 

 purchase of bait and supplies, and of transhlj)ping cargoes on our coast, have thought 

 ])ropcr to collect a mass of evidence to prove the commercial advantages I'csulting to 

 iirilish subjects from the Washington and Keeiprocit}' Treaties. For inbtance, Messrs. 

 11. V. Knowlton and Edward A. llorton, of (iloueester, value at iiOtt.C'lO dollars per year 

 the bait sold by Canadians to Americans ; and at half a million dollars r year the goods 

 sold to Americans for relitting. 



The principal witnesses lirought from (ilouce-ler ca.me here with such |)iejiidleed 

 minds, not to say worse, that their examination in chief seemed like an attempt to blind 

 this Commission witli one-'idcd statements, from which, at first sight, evolved a mystery 

 which took us some time to penetrate. Taking their ligures as they lirst ga\e them it 

 seemed a piece of folly for any American lisherman to liavi^ attempted, more than once or 

 twice, to have fished in British waters, as the resuli of eaeii trip constituted a net loss — 

 the ()uaiitily of fish ta!;en being almost inslgniiieant, and in (piallty until for the .Aaierican 

 market. Their statistics were arranged to create that impi'c-ion. 'J'he stati>iie:i with the 

 names of several firms who had pursued such an unprotituble business for a period of 

 twenty-five and thirty vears consecutively were furnished, We could noi find in our 

 i;xj)erience of things mid men, an obstinacy of that magnitude in mercantile alfalrs. The 

 cross-examhialion of these witnesses, extracted [ilecemeal, jiresented these transactions 

 muler a ditierent aspect, and It turned out alter all, that the (jloucester vessel owners and 

 tishcriiien had had all along more sense than tlie witnesses wanted us to suppose — it turned 

 out that the fish caught iu our waters were highly remunerative in (juality, and was in 



