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situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And as to what relates to the fishery on the coast of the Island of Cape Breton out of the said gulf, the citizens of the said United States shall not be permitted to exercise the said fishery, but at the distance of fifteen leagues from the coasts of the Island of Cape of Breton,"

was emphatically and decisively rejected by the American Commissioners, who even refused to consider any such limitations of the rights of the independent Colonies on the high seas.

The suggested article was thereupon abandoned by the British Commissioner who, in reporting to his Government, after the negotiations had been concluded, stated, as appears on p. 234 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States in a letter from Mr. Oswald, the British Commissioner, to Mr. Townshend :

"If we had not given way in the article of the fishery, we should have had no treaty at all. Mr. Adams having declared that he would never put his hand to any treaty, if the restraints regarding the three leagues and fifteen leagues were not dispensed with, as well as that denying his countrymen the privilege of drying fish on the unsettled parts of Nova Scotia."

And John Adams, in his Journal of the Peace Negotiations, found printed in part on p. 223 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States, confirms this statement of Richard Oswald; for Mr. Adams. makes this observation in his diary, under date the 29th November, 1782, which was during the negotiations themselves:—

"I rose up and said, gentlemen, is there or can there be a clearer right? In former treaties, that of Utrecht, and that of Paris, France and England have claimed the right, and used the word. When God Almighty made the Banks of Newfoundland at three hundred leagues distance from the people of America, and at six hundred leagues distance from those of France and England, did He not give as good a right to the former as to the latter? If Heaven, in the creation, gave a right, it is ours at least as much as yours. If occupation, use, and possession give a right, we have it as clearly as you. If war and blood and treasure give a right, ours is as good as yours."

And in the same entry, at the bottom of p. 224, Mr. Adams stated:— "I said I never could put my hand to any articles without satisfaction about the fishery; that Congress had, three or four years ago, when they did me the honor to give me a commission to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, given me a positive instruction not to make any such treaty without an article in the treaty of peace acknowledging our right to the fishery; that I was happy Mr. Laurens was now present, who, I believed, was in Congress at the time. and must remember it."

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Mr. Laurens was also one of the Commissioners on behalf of the United States in the negotiations of 1782. (Continuing the reading:-)

"Mr. Laurens upon this said, with great firmness, that he was in the same case and could never give his voice for any articles without

this. Mr. Jay spoke up, and said it could not be a peace; it would only be an insidious truce without it."

Article 3 of the treaty of 1783 appears at p. 24 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States, as finally agreed upon:

"It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulph of Saint Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea where the inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And also that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on that island) and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as the same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlements, without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the ground."

I will only make this observation on this article: that the article, when signed, did away with all proposed limitations upon the rights of the fishing-vessels or fishermen of the United States, and that, under the terms of that article 3 of the treaty of 1783, the inhabitants of the United States had the right to enjoy, co-extensively with the subjects of Great Britain, all the rights to the fisheries in the North Atlantic Ocean, and had the right to invade waters of whatever extent, and go to the very shores of the British possessions, and to do everything that a subject of Great Britain could do by virtue of his being a subject of Great Britain, except that inhabitants of the United States did not have the right to dry and cure fish upon the island of Newfoundland and in the province of Quebec.

Now, if the Tribunal please, why bring into this discussion matters preceding and antedating the actual negotiations of the treaty of 1783? In that treaty the rights of the inhabitants of the United States were determined and fixed; and by that treaty, and under the terms of that treaty, they were exercised thereafter, and there is no question of construction of that treaty here involved.

If there were any doubt about the wording of article 3 of the treaty of 1783 it might be appropriate to bring into the discussion the instructions of the Continental Congress, which instructions, as shown by Senator Turner, changed from time to time in accordance with the fortunes of war.

It might be appropriate, I say, to bring forward those proceedings for the purpose of obtaining light upon the construction of the words of this article 3 were there any doubt about their meaning.

But of course there is no doubt about their meaning. All limitations, except as to Newfoundland and Quebec, including the limitations proposed by the British Government-that in the Gulf of St. Lawrence the fishermen of the United States should not fish nearer than 3 leagues to the coast, and off the part of Cape Breton lying outside of the Gulf of St. Lawrence that they should be restrained from fishing within 15 leagues of the coast-disappeared when the treaty itself was signed; and the inhabitants of the United States, I repeat again, had the right to enjoy practically co-extensively with the subjects of Great Britain the fisheries in the North Atlantic Ocean bordering the British possessions.

I shall take but a moment, if the Tribunal please, to call attention to the difference in the terms of this article 3 of the Treaty of Peace of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain and the treaty between Great Britain and France of 1713, which is printed in the Appendix to the British Case at p. 7.

Counsel for Great Britain bring forward in the Case, and again before the Tribunal in oral argument, this treaty of 1713, which constituted a contract between Great Britain and France varying in essential particulars from the rights of the inhabitants of the United States recognised by Great Britain in the treaty of 1783, as though it was of some importance as to what the French did. The only clause of this treaty of 1713 that I desire to call to the attention of the Tribunal is found on p. 7 of the Appendix to the British Case:"in the said seas, bays, and other places on the coasts of Nova Scotia, that is to say, on those which lie towards the east, within 30 leagues, beginning from the island commonly called Sable, inclusively, and thence stretching along towards the south-west."

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In the treaty between Great Britain, France and Spain, of 1763, printed on p. 8 of the Appendix to the Case of Great Britain, which was also brought forward as being of enormous importance, will be found this provision, commencing with the fifth line of article 5:

"And His Britannic Majesty consents to leave to the subjects of the Most Christian King the liberty of fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on condition that the subjects of France do not exercise the said fishery but at the distance of three leagues from all the coasts belonging to Great Britain, as well those of the continent as those of the islands situated in the said Gulf of St. Lawrence. And as to what relates to the fishery on the coasts of the Island of Cape Breton, out of the said gulf, the subjects of the Most Christian King shall not be permitted to exercise the said fishery but at the distance of 15 leagues from the coasts of the Island of Cape Breton; and the fishery on the coasts of Nova Scotia or Acadia, and everywhere else out of the said gulf, shall remain on the foot of former treaties."

Now, if the Tribunal please, those words have a familiar sound. They are the terms of the proposal put forward by the Commissioner for Great Britain in the negotiations of 1782, appertaining to the fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and off the coast of Cape Breton; and the proposal was rejected by the Commissioners in behalf of the United States; and when article 3 of the treaty of 1783 was signed, all limitations, contracted to be binding as between France and Great Britain, and as between Spain and Great Britain, disappeared, and the inhabitants of the United States were to enjoy the unlimited and free right in all those fisheries on practically equal terms with the subjects of Great Britain.

The Tribunal is already familiar with the fact that in these first negotiations between the United States and Great Britain, and in the treaty agreed upon by the United States and Great Britain, all broad claims to extensive jurisdiction, in respect to the fisheries, over the waters adjacent to the shores of the British possessions in North America, were surrendered by the Government of Great Britain when the independence of the United States was recognised.

I have, however, taken the time to compare briefly the provisions of article 3 of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain signed in 1782 with the very different provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht between Great Britain and France of 1713, and the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763 between Great Britain, France, and Spain. The people of the United States were under the provisions of this treaty, which went into effect in 1783, from that time forward, to enjoy the fisheries with the subjects of Great Britain in all of the waters, including all bodies of water known by whatever name, adjacent to the British possessions in the North Atlantic.

This article 3 of the treaty of 1783 was in plain terms. What the people of the colonies, who had now become the United States of America, had enjoyed, they were to continue to enjoy with entire freedom.

The fisheries were demanded, and received, as a part of the fruits of the contest for Independence.

The fishery article of this treaty of 1783 was no mere concession by Great Britain, nor was it the result of a mere captious demand by the United States. It was a wise provision for a source for food to the people of the new nation, and for obtaining a product for exchange in the markets of the world; and was regarded by the people of the United States as providing an indispensable nursery for their future seamen.

The possession of these fisheries, as shown by the documents already made familiar in the arguments before this Tribunal, was the moving cause of the early conflicts between the English and the French in America.

A half-century before any settlement in North America by the English, the French had explored the St. Lawrence River, and later they established the first settlement at Quebec. They moved up the St. Lawrence, and on to Lake Huron, established trading posts and constructed forts along the Great Lakes, and crossed from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.

In the territory bordering the North Atlantic, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Great Britain claimed alone Newfoundland, by virtue of the discovery of Cabot. The English settlements were largely to the south, in what is now a part of the United States of America.

But while the English colonised the country, built homes and developed villages, the French girdled them about with a chain of fortifications and military posts.

The "War of the Spanish Succession" broke out in Europe in 1710 and spread to America, where it was known as "Queen Anne's War." In 1710 Acadie was taken by the English. The name of Port Royal was changed to Annapolis, in honour of Queen Anne, the English Queen; and the name of Acadie was changed to Nova Scotia. The Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, ended this war. England received all the territory surrounding Hudson's Bay, Acadie, and the undisputed possession of Newfoundland.

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In 1740, the "War of the Austrian Succession" broke out in Europe, and it was known in America, where it spread, as "King George's War." This once more embroiled the English and the French in America in war, as they were already embroiled in Europe. The possession of the fisheries moved the inhabitants of New England to invade the French territories in America, and Louisburg was captured by a force organised in the colony of Massachusetts and adjoining colonies. By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, however, in 1748, all territory acquired or conquered in New France was restored to the French crown.

In 1755, war broke out between the French and the English in America. This war became known as the "French and Indian war." It spread from America across the Atlantic, in the other direction this time, and in Europe was known as the "Seven Years War."

In 1759, in September, we all recall that Wolfe scaled the Heights of Abraham, and lost his life, but won Canada for England. When the treaty in 1763 was made between England and France, England received the undisputed possession of Quebec, which subsequently was divided into Lower and Upper Canada; received the undisputed possession of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton; the undisputed possession of Prince Edward's Island, then known as St. John's Island; the undisputed possession of all the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and had already acquired, under the treaty of 1713 with the

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