'909-] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 353 



All through the negotiations relating to the fisheries question 

 since the treaty of partition of 1783, the British empire and her two 

 colonies of Canada and Newfoundland have sought to cut down the 

 rights assigned by the partition treaty of 1783 to American citizens 

 to catch fish in the territorial waters adjoining the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence and the adjoining regions. Some of those rights America 

 consented in the formal Treaty of 1818, concluded with the British 

 imperial government, to give up. But not satisfied with the substan- 

 tial gains then obtained, both Canada and Newfoundland through 

 one subterfuge or another, have again and again tried to obtain 

 more concessions from America by offering a shadow, as guarantee- 

 ing the right, for example, for American fishing vessels to navigate 

 the Gut of Canso, for a reality. As in the case of the Alaska fron- 

 tier where Canada's land claims grew greater with the passing of the 

 years, so in this fisheries dispute the position of America on the 

 one hand, and of Great Britain, Canada and Newfoundland on the 

 other hand, is well summed up in the words with which Count Nessel- 

 rode, nearly ninety years since, contrasted the positions of the Musco- 

 vite and the British empires when they were discussing their Russo- 

 British American frontier: 



Ainsi nous voulons conserver, et les compagnies angloises veulent acquerir. 



