is to be found in the irritation that has
taken place among a portion of the Canadian people on account of the
termination by the United States Government of the treaty of Washington
on the 1st of July, 1885, whereby fish imported from Canada into the
United States, which so long as that treaty remained in force was
admitted free, is now liable to the import duty provided by the general
revenue laws; and the opinion appears to have gained ground in Canada
that the United States may be driven, by harassing and annoying their
fishermen, into the adoption of a new treaty, by which Canadian fish
shall be admitted free."

In their efforts to carry out such a policy the treaty gave the
Canadians a very great advantage. As Mr. Secretary Bayard insisted, it
certainly trangressed usual international comity when our ships were
refused needed pilots, or our hungry crews were forbidden to purchase
food in Canadian ports; but our President and Senate had, in 1818,
agreed that such cruelty should be legal. To ask for comity in the
matter was to ask for the voidance of the treaty.

As little could we, agreeably to the treaty, presume, by use of home
permits to "touch and trade," to turn a fishing vessel at will into a
merchant vessel, as was often tried in order to evade the offensive
restrictions, or demand the liberty of freighting fish home overland in
bond. It would equally have amounted to a quashing of the treaty, had
the British and Canadians interpreted it by the easy canon of Mr.
Phelps: "The question is not what is the technical effect of the words,
but what is the construction most consonant to the dignity, the just
interests, and the friendly relations of the sovereign powers."

Interesting but also untenable was our Government's plea for freedom to
purchase bait for deep-sea fishing. Of old, mackerel had been caught
almost solely with hooks, by the "chumming" process. In 1850 the purse
seine was introduced. Soon after 1870 its use became general, and
entirely revolutionized the business of taking mackerel. Huge quantities
of the fish could now be captured far out in the open sea, making
fishing much more profitable near home, and greatly lessening the value
to us of Canada's fishing-grounds. From these premises Mr. Bayard
argued that the true intent of the 1818 agreement, which was to protect
inshore fishing territory, would not be violated should we be allowed to
buy bait in Canada. It was replied that the old treaty w