XXX INTRODUCTION 



not, however, recognize the distinction, for a gulf of the proportions of 

 the St. Lawrence could hardly be considered without specific agreement 

 as the territorial water of any country. The statement, however, that 

 the people of the United States were to possess the right to fish un- 

 molested in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in all other places in the sea 

 indicated that whatever the claim of Great Britain might be against 

 other countries, by virtue of treaty or convention, American fishermen 

 were not to be excluded. The express statement of the right precluded 

 the possibiUty of ambiguity or controversy. 



Passing now to the second or concluding sentence of the article, it 

 will be seen that the right granted to the inhabitants of the United States 

 is two-fold, for American fishermen are not to fish generally as in the first 

 sentence, but within certain clearly defined and specific limits. For 

 example, "on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen 

 shall use . . . and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of 

 His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America." In the next place 

 American fishermen are to possess, in addition to the right of fishing on 

 the coast of Newfoundland and other coasts, bays, and creeks of British 

 North America, the liberty to dry and cure fish in certain specified bays, 

 harbors, and creeks, that is to say, the bays, harbors, and creeks of 

 Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador. But the right to dry and 

 cure fish is conditioned upon the fact that such harbors and creeks 

 are unsettled, and that the right shall remain only "so long as the same 

 shall remain unsettled." Should they become settled American fisher- 

 men are not denied by the treaty the right to dry and cure fish within 

 or upon them, but the exercise of the right is made to depend upon "a 

 previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, 

 or possessors of the ground." It will be noted that the nature of the 

 right to each of the two main divisions is expressed by the use of different 

 technical terms; for example, the people of the United States are to 

 enjoy the right to take fish upon the high seas or portions thereof, 

 whereas in the second division the inhabitants of the United States are 

 to possess the liberty to take fish within certain definite regions, and the 

 liberty to dry and cure fish within certain specified portions of British 

 territory. Much learning and ingenuity have been employed to estab- 

 lish a distinction between the word "right" and the word "Hberty," and 

 it may be that the word "right" is more properly used to denote a gen- 

 eral right not vested in the Crown as such. For example, a right to fish 

 upon high seas is conferred by international law, whereas the word 

 "hberty" is more appropriate to indicate a right vested in the Crown, 

 namely, the right of fishing within territorial waters or bodies of water 



