Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1877 — THE FISHERY AWARD. [ARTICLE]

THE FISHERY AWARD.

A History of the Dispute and the Negotiations tor An Adjustment. The decision of the fishery Commission, awarding Great Britain $5,500,000, says the Inter-Ocean, will not satisfy Canada, because it is not as much by one-half as the Canadians expected; and it will not satisfy Americans, because the amount is four or five times as large as they thonght it ought to be. Just whether this bone will remove a troublesome bone of contention that has been a source of irritation for nearly a century, remains to be seen. The treaty of 1783 conceded to the Americans the right to fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Grand bank, and all other banks and waters in the deep sea, and the liberty to fish on certain British coasts, and in certain waters within the territorial jurisdiction of Great Britain, with liberty also to land on British coasts for drying and curing purposes. This article gave rise to no dispute until 1814, when in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent the British Commissioner maintained that the war had destroyed its validity. The Americans, on the other hand, contended that the fishery rights secured them by the Treaty of Independence were irrecoverable and inalienable. The rival diplomtists left the question open, and nothing was said of it in the Treaty of Ghent. The controversy was revived in 1815, and an attempt was made to settle it in 1818 by the convention of that year, which granted the Americans the right to fish in the deep sea, and to dry and cure on British coasts, as by the treaty of 1783, while they renounced all claim to fish within three marine miles of the British coasts, bays, creeks or harbors, still retaining, however, the right to enter such coasts, bays, etc., for shelter, repairing damage, and purchasing wood. This agreement, however, did not allay the dispute, and questions involving practicallj the right of Americans to fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, and the Bay of Chateur came up again and again for settlement. The dispute, so far as it related to the Bay of Fundy, was submitted to arbitration in connection with the seizure of Washington by.the British, and was decided in favor of this country. From 1824 to 1854 the New Englanders and the Canadians had quarrela without number. In 1854 the rival claims were amicably adjusted by the reciprocity treaty. In 1866 that agreement was abrogated, and the old trouble commenced. In the Treaty of Washington, 1871, an attempt was made to settle the dispute definitely. By that instrument the fisheries of both countries were thrown open reciprocally, but, inasmuch as it was asserted by England that the privileges she accorded were of greater value than those given in return, the subject was referred to a commission to be composed of one Commissioner from both the United States and Great Britain, and a third to be nominated by the Emperor of Austria. After a delay of nearly six years the commission was organized, the three arbitrators being Mr. De Forse, Sir A. T. Galt, and ex-Judge Kellogg, of Massachusetts.