236 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



In 18 18 this was a book of very great authority. It had been 

 published and repubhshed in many editions, and this particular 

 book which I read is an American edition published in Philadelphia 

 in 1827, from the last London edition which was published in 1818, 

 the very year of the negotiation of the treaty. Lord Coke says: 



"Fourthly, in case an election be given of two several things, always 

 he which is the first agent, and which ought to do the first act, shall have 

 the election. As if a man granteth a rent of twenty shillings, or a robe to 

 one of his heirs, the grantor shall have the election; for he is the first agent, 

 by the payment of the one, or delivery of the other. So if a man maketh 

 a lease, rendering a rent or a robe, the lessee shall have the election causa 

 qua supra. And with this agree the books in the margent. But if I give 

 unto you one of my horses in my stable, there you shall have the election; 

 for you shall be the first agent by taking or seisure of one of them. And if 

 one grant to another twenty loads of hazle or twenty loads of maple to be 

 taken in his wood of D., there the grantee shall have election; for he ought 

 to do the first act, soil, to fell and take the same." 



You see. Lord Coke there is referring to the rule in the transac- 

 tions of every-day life in England, and this book, and the customary 

 law which it records, so entered into the life of the English people 

 that very well-informed gentlemen like these negotiators on the 

 part of Great Britain must have known of the nile which it records 

 — very well-informed gentlemen belonging to the class from which 

 Great Britain took her Chaiicellors of the Exchequer, like Mr. 

 Goulburn, and her Prime Ministers, like Mr. Robinson. 



The President : The Court will adjourn until 2 o'clock. 1 



The PEEsmENT: Will you kindly continue, Mr. Senator 

 Root? 2 



Senator Root: Before leaving the subject upon which I was 

 speaking before noon; I wish to cite another rule of construction 

 which, with acknowledgment to the Attorney-General, I will take 

 from his argument. I read from p. 5819 of the typewritten copy 

 [p. 989, supra]. Says the Attorney-General: 



'Thereupon, at 12.05 o'clock P.M., the Tribunal took a recess until 2 o'clock P.M. 

 'Tuesday, August 9, 1910, 2 p.m. 



