ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT ii 



3rd April, 1880 (United States Case Appendix, p. 683), by a further 

 statement which I read from that letter on p. 687 : 



"Mr. Evarts will not require to be assured that Her Majesty's Government, 

 while unable to admit the contention of the United States Government on the 

 present occasion, are fully sensible of the evils arising from any difference of 

 opinion between the two governments in regard to the fishery rights of their 

 respective subjects. They have always admitted the incompetence of the 

 colonial or the imperial legislature to limit by subsequent legislation the advan- 

 tages secured by treaty to the subjects of another power." 



It still remains, however, after the drawing of this line by Lord 

 Salisbury declaring on the one hand what Great Britain clearly 

 could do, and on the other hand what Great Britain clearly could 

 not do, to further define the position of the line beyond the generality 

 of the terms used by Lord Salisbury. And, that further definition 

 was made in the correspondence relating to the Newfoundland 

 treaty legislation of 1873 ^^^ 1874. 



You will remember that the Treaty of Washington of 1871 

 provided that it should apply to Newfoundland, in case the Legis- 

 lature of Newfoundland passed a law making it applicable, and 

 they did pass a law in 1873. It appears in the British Case Appen- 

 dix at p. 705, "An Act relating to the Treaty of Washington, 1871." 

 In the first article of that statute they include a proviso (p. 706) : 



"Provided that such Laws, rules and regulations, relating to the time 

 aiid manner of prosecuting the Fisheries on the Coast of this Island, shall not 

 be in any way affected by such suspension." 



A very definite claim, a distinct assertion: 



"Provided that such Laws, rules and regulations, relating to the time and 

 manner of prosecuting the Fisheries on the Coasts of this Island, shall not be 

 in any way affected by such suspension." 



When that was called to the attention of the American Govern- 

 ment, Mr. Fish, the American Secretary of State, wrote a letter, 

 dated the 25th June, 1873, which appears on p. 252 of the British 

 Case Appendix, in which, concerning the Treaty of Washington, 

 he said, as we say of this treaty of 1818: 



"The Treaty places no hmitation of time, within the period during which 

 the Articles relating to the fisheries are to remain in force, either upon the right 



