Commissioners shall be requested to give their award as soon as possible thereafter. The aforesaid period of six months may be extended for three months in case of a vacancy occurring among the Commissioners under the circumstances contemplated in Article XXIII of this Treaty.

"ARTICLE XXV.

"The Commissioners shall keep an accurate record and correct minutes or notes of all their proceedings, with the dates thereof, and may appoint and employ a Secretary and any other necessary officer or officers to assist them in the transaction of the business which may come before them.

"Each of the High Contracting Parties shall pay its own Commissioner and Agent or Counsel: all other expenses shall be defrayed by the two Governments in equal moieties.

"ARTICLE XXXII.

"It is further agreed that the provisions and stipulations of Articles XVIII to XXV of this Treaty, inclusive, shall extend to the Colony of Newfoundland, so far as they are applicable. But if the Imperial Parliament, the Legislature of Newfoundland, or the Congress of the United States, shall not embrace the Colony of Newfoundland in their laws enacted for carrying the foregoing Articles into effect, then this Article shall be of no effect; but the omission to make provision by law to give it effect, by either of the Legislative bodies aforesaid, shall not in any way impair any other Articles of this Treaty.

"ARTICLE XXXIII.

"The forgoing Articles XVIII to XXV, inclusive, and Article XXX, of this Treaty, shall take effect as soon as the laws required to carry them into operation shall have been passed by the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Canada, and by the Legislature of Prince Edward's Island on the one hand, and by the Congress of the United States on the other. Such assent having been given, the said Articles shall remain in force for the period of ten years from the date at which they may come into operation; and further until the expiration of two years after either of the High Contracting Parties shall have given notice to the other of its wish to terminate the same; each of the High Contracting Parties being at liberty to give such notice to the other at the end of the said period of ten years, or at any time afterward."

The Acts necessary to enable these Articles to be carried into effect were passed by the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain on the 6th August, 1872; by the Parliament of Canada on the 14th June, 1872; by the Legislature of Prince Edward Island (which did not at that time form part of the Dominion) on the 29th June, 1872; and by the United States Congress on the 25th of February, 1873. A Proclamation, dated Washington, 7th June, 1873, fixed the 1st of July of that year as the day on which these Articles should come formally into operation.

In the case of Newfoundland, it was not until the 28th of March, 1874, that the necessary Act was passed by that Colony; and a Proclamation, issued on the 29th of May of the same year, fixed the 1st day of June, 1874, as the day on which the Fishery Articles of the Treaty of Washington, so far as they relate to Newfoundland, should come into effect.

In order to estimate the advantages derived respectively by the fishermen of the United States and of Great Britain, under the terms of the first portion of Article XVIII of the Treaty of Washington, of 1871, the Commission had to determine the value of the privileges granted to each country respectively by Articles XVIII, XIX, and XXI of that Treaty, which were not enjoyed under the 1st Article of the Convention of the 20th October, 1818.

Articles XVIII and XXI of the Treaty of Washington superadded to the privileges conferred upon the United States' citizens by the Convention of 1818:

(1.) "The liberty to take fish of every kind except shell fish, on the sea-coasts and shores, and in the bays, harbours, and creeks of the Provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Colony of Prince Edward Island, and of the several Islands thereunto adjacent, without being restricted to any distance from the shore, with permission to land upon the said coasts and shores, and Islands, and also upon the Magdalen Islands, for the purpose of drying their nets or curing their fish; provided that in so doing, they do not interfere with the rights of private property, or with British fishermen in the peaceable use of any part of the said coasts in their occupancy for the same purpose.

"It is understood that the above-mentioned liberty applies solely to the sea fishery, and that the salmon and shad fisheries, and all other fisheries in rivers and the mouths of rivers, are hereby reserved exclusively for British fishermen.

(2.) "The admission into Canada of 'fish oil and fish of all kinds, (except fish of the inland lakes and of the rivers falling into them, and except fish preserved in oil) being the produce of the Fisheries of the United States,' free of duty.

(3.) "The enjoyment of these privileges to continue during a period of 12 years certain.

"Similar privileges are granted by Article XXXII in regard to the Colony of Newfoundland."

Articles XIX and XXI confer the following privileges upon British subjects:

(1.) "The liberty to take fish of every kind except shell fish, on the eastern sea-coasts and shores of the United States north of the 39th parallel of north latitude, and on the shores of the several islands thereunto adjacent, and in the bays, harbours, and creeks of the said sea coast and shores of the United States and of the said islands, without being restricted to any distance from the shore, with permission to land upon the said coasts of the United States and of the islands aforesaid for the purpose of drying their nets and curing their fish; provided that in so doing, they do not interfere with the rights of private property or with the fishermen of the United States in the peaceable use of any part of the said coasts in their occupancy for the same purpose.

"It is understood that the above-mentioned liberty applies solely to the sea fishery, and that salmon and shad fisheries and all other fisheries in rivers and mouths of rivers are hereby reserved exclusively for fishermen of the United States."

(2.) The admission into the United States of "fish-oil and fish of all kinds (except fish of the inland lakes and of the rivers falling into them, and except fish preserved in oil) being the produce of the fisheries of the Dominion of Canada, or of Prince Edward Island" free of duty. (3.) The enjoyment of these privileges to continue during a period of 12 years certain.

Article XXXII extends the above-mentioned privileges, so far as they are applicable, to the Colony of Newfoundland.

Upon this basis Great Britain asserted that the privileges specified in Article XVIII of the Treaty of Washington, of 8th May, 1871, exceeded in value the privileges specified in Articles XIX and XXI, and claimed $12,000,000 for the Dominion of Canada and $2,880,000 for Newfoundland.

A Commission composed of His Excellency Monsieur Maurice Delfosse, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, at Washington, named by the Ambassador at London of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary; the Hon. Ensign H. Kellogg, named by the President of the United States; and Sir Alexander T. Galt, K.C.M.G., named by Her Britannic Majesty, met at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 15th day of June, 1877, and proceeded to hear the evidence and arguments of Counsel of the Contracting Parties.

At the Meeting of 1st September, 1877, the Counsel and Agent of the United States moved the Commissioners to rule and declare that :

It is not competent for this Commission to award any compensation for commercial intercourse between the two countries, and the advantages resulting from the practice of purchasing bait, ice, supplies, etc., etc., and from being allowed to tranship cargoes in British waters, do not constitute good foundation for an award of compensation, and shall be wholly excluded from the consideration of this tribunal.

On the 6th September, 1877, the Commission, having considered the motion submitted by the Agent of the United States at the Conference held on the 1st decided unanimously:

That it is not within the competence of this Tribunal to award com'pensation for commercial intercourse between the two countries, nor "for the purchasing of bait, ice, supplies, &c., &c., nor for the permis"sion to tranship cargoes in British waters."

After this decision was rendered, Sir Alexander T. Galt, among other things, said:

I find that the effect of the motion, and of the argument which has been given upon it, is to limit the power of this tribunal to certain specified points. This definition is undoubtedly important in its consequences. It eliminates from the consideration of the Commission an important part of the case submitted on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, so far as this part forms a direct claim for compensation; but at the same time, it has the further important effect that it defines and limits the rights conceded to the citizens of the United States under the Treaty of Washington.

I confess to a great feeling of disappointment that such an important part of the question connected with the settlement of the fisheries. dispute should apparently be removed, or partly removed, from the possible consideration and adjudication of this tribunal, and I am bound to say that my conviction of the intention of the parties to the Treaty of Washington is that this was not their purpose at the time.

But I am met by the most authoritative statement, as to what were the intentions of the parties to the Treaty. There can be no stronger or better evidence of what the United States proposed to acquire under the Washington Treaty, than the authoritative statement which has been made by their Agent before us here, and by their counsel. We are now distinctly told that it was not the intention of the United States, in any way, by that Treaty, to provide for the continuation of these incidental privileges, and that the United States are prepared to take the whole responsibility, and to run all the risk of the re-enactment of the vexatious statutes, to which reference has been made.

The responsibility is accepted by and must rest upon those who appeal to the strict words of the Treaty as their justification.

On the 23rd day of November, 1877, the Commission closed their proceedings by rendering the following award:

The undersigned Commissioners appointed under Articles XXII and XXIII of the Treaty of Washington of the 8th of May, 1871, to determine, having regard to the privileges accorded by the United States to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, as stated in Articles XIX and XXI of said Treaty, the amount of any compensation which in their opinion ought to be paid by the Government of the United States to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, in return for the privileges accorded to the citizens of the United States under Article XVIII of the said Treaty;

Having carefully and impartially examined the matters referred to them according to justice and equity, in conformity with the Solemn Declaration made and subscribed by them on the Fifteenth day of June, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-seven :

AWARD the sum of Five Millions Five Hundred Thousand Dollars, in gold, to be paid by the Government of the United States to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty in accordance with the provisions of the said Treaty.

Signed at Halifax, this twenty-third day of November, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-seven.

MAURICE DELFOSSE,
A. T. GALT.

The United States Commissioner is of opinion that the advantages accruing to Great Britain under the Treaty of Washington are greater than the advantages conferred on the United States by the said Treaty, and he cannot therefore concur in the conclusions announced by his colleagues.

And the American Commissioner deems it his duty to state further that it is questionable whether it is competent for the Board to make an award under the Treaty, except with the unanimous consent of its members.

E. H. KELLOGG,

Commissioner.

The question of a unanimous award would hardly have been put forward, if. in the same Treaty, it had not been formally stated that, as regards the commission which would sit at Geneva for the settlement of the American claims resulting from the destruction of property by the steamer Alabama, a majority award should prevail.

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