nce, the British government, as a compromise, offered
the middle channel, or Douglas, which would still retain San Juan. If
they had always adhered to the Douglas--which appears to answer the
conditions of the treaty, since it lies practically in the middle of the
great channel--their position would have been much stronger than it was
when they came back to the Rosario. The British representatives at the
Washington conference of 1871 suggested the reference of the question to
arbitration, but the United States' commissioners, aware of their
vantage ground, would consent to no other arrangement than to leave to
the decision of the Emperor of Germany the question whether the Haro or
the Rosario channel best accorded with the treaty; and the Emperor
decided in favour of the United States. However, with the possession of
Vancouver in its entirety, Canada can still be grateful; and San Juan is
now only remembered as an episode of skilful American diplomacy. The
same may be said of another acquisition of the republic--insignificant
from the point of view of territorial area, but still illustrative of
the methods which have won all the great districts we have named
--Rouse's Point at the outlet of Lake Champlain, "of which an exact
survey would have deprived" the United States, according to Mr. Schouler
in his excellent history.

During this period the fishery question again assumed considerable
importance. The government at Washington raised the contention that the
three miles' limit, to which their fishermen could be confined by the
convention of 1818, should follow the sinuosities of the coasts,
including the bays, the object being to obtain access to the valuable
mackerel fisheries of the Bay of Chaleurs and other waters claimed to be
exclusively within the territorial jurisdiction of the maritime
provinces. The imperial government sustained the contention of the
provinces--a contention practically supported by American authorities in
the case of the Delaware, Chesapeake, and other bays on the coast of the
United States--that the three miles' limit should be measured from a
line drawn from headlands of all bays, harbours and creeks. In the case
of the Bay of Fundy, however, the imperial government allowed a
departure from this general principle, when it was urged by the
Washington government that one of its headlands was in the territory of
the United States, and that it was an arm of the sea rather than a bay.
The result