ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 157 



to be washed up on their shore, to be driven in, where it would 

 become offensive. I say this statute relates specifically to the 

 people who came to use the beach, the shore, on the north shore of 

 the Bay of Chaleur, within the Canadian limits; and does not extend 

 itself out to sea at all, except by this ballast provision. That is 

 all for Lower Canada. 



So there was not, in 1783 or in 1818, or at any time between 

 them, any provision in Lower Canada which in any degree regulated 

 or affected the time and manner in which American fishermen might 

 exercise their liberty. 



There was in New Brimswick a series of statutes, that is, a stat- 

 ute with amendments, relating to the river and harbor of St. John, 

 passed in 1793, a statute for the protection of river fishing, with 

 clauses in it apparently for the protection of the harbor channels 

 in the Bay of St. John, into which the river runs. The tides in the 

 Bay of Fimdy, the Tribunal will remember — and we are very 

 proud of the fact — are the highest in the world; and the water 

 rushes in and out with tremendous violence. This statute pro- 

 hibited the nmning of nets out from the shore more than a certain 

 distance. A careful examination of the statute will show that it 

 relates to nets running out from the shore. They are to be not 

 nearer than so much, measured by a line parallel to the shore, and 

 only so many lengths of net out from the shore. So that it is 

 purely a river shore regidation. Nevertheless, there is a very 

 interesting circumstance affecting this river regulation, to which 

 I shall call attention before very long, and I will ask the Tribunal 

 to recall the description that I have given, both of that Nova 

 Scotia authorization for one year to magistrates to make rules for 

 the protection of the run of fish in the rivers and this St. John river 

 protection. The negotiators heard of the subject in the course of 

 their negotiations, as I shall presently show. 



Then there was in New Brimswick a statute containing a local 

 regulation of the shore rights in Northumberland County, in the 

 Bay of Miramichi, and authorizing lotal magistrates to make 

 regulations. And there was in two of this series of statutes a 

 Sunday regulation. Those laws were 1793, 1799, and 1810. I think 

 I have fairly described them. 



So the Tribunal will perceive that here, over this whole extent 



