Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/690

 658 History of the Fisheries question. and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever ," subject to such restrictions as might be "necessary to prevent their taking, drying, or curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges hereby reserved to them." In the years that followed the conclusion of this convention various questions arose as to its proper interpretation. What were the " bays " intended by the convention ? Did they include only bodies of water not more than six marine miles wide at the mouth, or all bodies of water bearing the name of bays, such even as the Bay of Fundy or the Bay of Chaleurs? Were the three marine miles to be measured from a line following the sinuosities of the coast, or from a line drawn from headland to headland, even where there might be no body of water bearing the name of a bay? Did the stipulations of the convention prohibit American fishing vessels from trafficking or obtaining supplies in the British colonial ports, even when they had entered for one of the four specified purposes ? Might the colonial authorities prohibit such vessels from navigating the Strait of Canso, which was at least a way of convenience if not of necessity between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St Lawrence? All these questions, and particularly the first three, were discussed with more or less acrimony, especially after 1836, when the authorities of Nova Scotia adopted measures for the more stringent enforcement of the convention. They were temporarily put to rest by the reciprocity treaty of 1854, under which mutual privileges as to inshore fishing in the waters of both countries were coupled with certain privileges in trade and navigation. They were revived by the termination of that treaty in 1866, but were again suspended by the fishery clauses of the Treaty of Washington of May 8, 1871, under which the United States, in return for the privilege of inshore fishing, gave to the products of the Canadian fisheries a free market, and agreed to submit to arbitration the question whether further compensation should be paid. The award made at Halifax in 1877 of $5,500,000, or nearly half a million dollars for each of the twelve years during which the treaty was certainly to continue in force, produced in the United States a feeling of dissatisfaction, not only because the rate of compensation thus sanctioned was believed to be excessive, but also because the choice of the third arbitrator, by whose vote the award was determined, was attended with unusual incidents. These circumstances combined to ensure the denunciation of the fishery articles at the earliest possible moment; and in due time, on notice given by the United States, July 1, 1885, was fixed as the date of their termination. In the preceding spring, however, it was agreed, as the result of overtures made by the British Legation, that American fishermen should continue to enjoy their treaty privileges during the pending season, in consideration of the President undertaking to recommend to Congress at its next session the creation of a joint