ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 207 



ence 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 

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



There you have the full question and answer and specification 

 and reply; a demand by Mr. Evarts for an expHcit avowal as to 

 whether great Britain claims paramoimt authority of her legislation 

 over the exercise of the treaty right; a response by Lord SaKsbury 

 that Great Britain concedes that "British sovereignty is hmited 

 in its scope by the engagements of the treaty, which cannot be 

 modified or affected by municipal legislation"; a call by Lord 

 Salisbury upon Mr. Evarts to specify what recent legislation he 

 considers contravenes the treaty; a specification by Mr. Evarts of 

 statutes, some within the Hfe of the treaty and some prior to the 

 life of the treaty; a reply by Lord SaUsbury that the effect of the 

 treaty, which conferred a right in common with Newfoundland 

 fishermen, was to impose upon American fishermen regulations 

 and limitations of the statutes existing at the time that treaty was 

 made, but that they recognized the incompetence of Great Britain 

 to limit by subsequent regulation the advantages secured by the 

 treaty. 



This answers to the definition finely drawn by the Attorney- 

 General between mere admissions on the part of government 

 officers and the acts of the government itself. This was the for- 

 mal and the authentic action of the government of Great Britain 

 denying the claim for compensation on the part of the United 

 States, and doing it in the face of the grave declarations made 

 by Mr. Evarts regarding the course which it would be the duty 

 of the government of the United States to take if it should find 

 that the claim of Great Britain to paramount authority over the 

 exercise of the American right so far destroyed that right as to 

 make it worthless. 



Judge Gray: The Sunday law had been enacted after 1871? 



Senator Root: After 1871, yes; and it is abandoned by Lord 

 Salisbury. 



If there ever was a case in which the evidence was clear and 

 incontrovertible of the positive position taken by one government 



