igS FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



tion which bears upon the proposition that I am now arguing. 

 That is, that the two governments did not consider that there was 

 any right of municipal legislation to restrict the exercise of the 

 American liberty. 



The Tribunal will remember that the first law passed by New- 

 foundland to put the treaty of 187 1 into effect, to make it apply to 

 Newfoundland, contained a provision: 



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

 manner of prosecuting the fisheries on the coast of this island shall not be 

 in any way affected by such suspension." 



That is the suspension of statutes. On the 19th June, 1873, 

 Mr. Thornton wrote a letter which appears in the United States 

 Counter-Case Appendix at p. 195, in which he proposes to Mr. 

 Fish, the American Secretary of State, a protocol to supplement the 

 treaty, relating to this proviso of the Newfoundland statute. I 

 read from the paragraph in the middle of p. 195 : 



"I am, therefore, instructed to propose to you to sign a protocol with 

 regard to Newfoundland similar to that which I had the honor to sign with 

 you on the 7th instant, with the addition of a clause following as nearly as 

 possible the proviso at the end of the first article of the Newfoundland act, 

 namely, that the laws, rules and regulations of the colony relating to the time 

 and manner of prosecuting the fisheries on the coast of the island shall not in 

 any way be affected by the suspension of the laws of the colony which operate 

 to prevent Articles 18 to 25 of the Treaty of Washington from taking full effect 

 during the period mentioned in the 33d article of the treaty.'' 



On the next day Mr. Thornton wrote to Mr. Fish a letter which 

 appears on p. 196, dated the 20th June, 1873, and I ask the particu- 

 lar attention of the Tribunal to this letter. It says: 



"With reference to my note of yesterday's date and to our conversation 

 upon the subject of the Act passed by the Legislature of Newfoundland for 

 carrying into effect Articles 18 to 25 of the Treaty of May 8, 1871, I have 

 the honor to state that from a report made by the Attorney-General of New- 

 foundland to the Governor it would appear that the Proviso at the end of 

 Section i of that Act has reference to the time for the prosecution of the Herring 

 fishery on the Western Coast of the Island" — 



that is, the treaty coast under the Act of 1818 — 



"and was merely intended to place citizens of the United States on the same footing 

 with Her Majesty's subjects in that particular so that the rules and regulations 



