eight sovereign States, namely, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Sweden and Norway, Spain, Austria and Hungary, Great Britain, and the United States.

PROBABLE AMOUNT OF INDEMNITY.

The peculiarity of the arrangement, we see, is that the United States are to make compensation to Great Britain for any excess in value of the privileges of fishery accorded to the United States above those accorded to Great Britain. One party asserts, the other denies, such excess of value.

This question involves examination of facts, but it also suggests inquiry of right.

What are the privileges which the United States acquire under Article XVIII. of the Treaty of Washington? Certainly not any which they possessed already.

Now, in virtue of subsisting stipulations of the Treaty of 1818, we possessed the recognized right of fishery along the coasts, and in the bays, harbors, and creeks of British North America, subject, in so far as regards the present question, only to the renunciation which we made in that treaty of the liberty previ ously enjoyed or claimed, to take, dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors of certain defined parts of the shores of British America. The Treaty of Washington removes this limitation. Hereafter we are to fish on the sea-coasts and shores, and in the bays, harbors, and creeks, previously subject to limitation of three marine miles, "without being restricted to

any distance from the shore." But we are not required to pay for any relinquishment on the part of Great Britain of the fictitious claim founded on the erroneous opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, which, on the false assumption that "headlands" are mentioned in the Treaty of 1818, extends an imaginary line seaward three marine miles from each cape of bays and indents of the coast, joins the extremities of those two lines by a straight line, and then requires our fishermen to keep outside of this connecting line. Deluded by that opinion, the British Government, indeed, absurdly undertook to exclude us by force from the Bay of Fundy, but failed to maintain its pretension in that respect.

What we purchase is the right to enter and fish within the three marine miles of the shores at the bottom of certain bays, harbors, and creeks (from which alone we were excluded by the Treaty of 1818), disregarding wholly the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown. Looking at the clause under consideration, in this its only proper light, it is plain that it can not impose any serious charge on the United States.

CHAPTER VI.

COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE AND TRANSPORTATION.

TREATY PROVISIONS.

SUNDRY stipulations of the Treaty which relate to rights of navigation, and of transport by land or water, -to concessions of commercial intercourse and transit, or to the free interchange of objects of production, are divisible into, first, permanent provisions, and, secondly, temporary provisions.

1. Of permanent provisions we have the following: [a] Great Britain engages that the navigation of the River St. Lawrence, ascending and descending, from the point where it ceases to form the boundary between the two countries, shall forever remain free and open for the purpose of commerce to the citizens of the United States [Art. XXVI.].

The United States engage that the Rivers Yukon, Porcupine, and Stikine, in Alaska, ascending and descending from, to, and into the sea, shall forever remain free and open for the purpose of commerce to the subjects of Great Britain [Art. XXVI.].

Rights of local police and regulation are reserved by each Government.

[6] The United States engage that the subjects

of Great Britain shall enjoy the use of the St. Clair Flats' Canal on terms of equality with the inhabitants of the United States [Art. XXVII.].

[c] The United States engage to urge on the State Governments, and Great Britain engages to urge on the Dominion of Canada, to secure each to the subjects or citizens of the other the use, on equal terms of the several canals connected with the lakes or rivers traversed by or contiguous to the boundary-line between the possessions of the high contracting Parties [Art. XXVII.].

All these are provisions which bring the United States and the Dominion of Canada into fixed relations independent of and superior to all questions of Governments.

2. Of temporary provisions we have the following: [a] The navigation of Lake Michigan is declared free and open for the purposes of commerce to the subjects of Great Britain [Art. XXVIII.].

[b] Goods, wares, and merchandise arriving at the ports of New York, Boston, Portland, or such other ports as the President may designate, and destined for the British possessions in North America, may be entered at the proper custom-house without payment of duties, and conveyed in transit through the territory of the United States [Art. XXIX.].

And, in like manner, goods, wares, and merchandise arriving at any of the ports of the British possessions in North America, and destined for the United States, may be entered at the proper custom - house, and conveyed in transit without the payment of duties

through the said possessions; and goods, wares, and merchandise may be conveyed in transit without payment of duties, from the United States through the said possessions to other places in the United States, or for export from ports in the said possessions [Art. XXIX.].

All these rights of transit are, of course, subject to such regulations for the protection of the revenue as the respective Governments may prescribe.

[c] Great Britain engages to urge on the Dominion of Canada and the Province of New Brunswick that no export duty or other duty shall be levied on timber cut in that part of the American territory in the State of Maine watered by the River St. John and its tributaries, and floated down that river to the sea, when the same is shipped to the United States from the Province of New Brunswick.

[d] Subjects of Great Britain may carry in British vessels, without payment of duty, goods, wares, or merchandise from one port or place within the territory of the United States upon the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the rivers connecting the same, to another port or place within the territory of the United States, provided that a portion of such transportation is made through the Dominion of Canada by land carriage and in bond [Art. XXX.].

Citizens of the United States may carry in United States vessels goods, wares, or merchandise from one port or place within the British possessions in North America to another port or place within the said possessions, provided that a portion of such transpor