lied the word
"bay" to all indentations of their coast, affecting entirely to exclude
our fishermen from great bodies of water like Fundy, Chaleurs, and
Miramichi, however far parts of these might be from shore. This was the
famous "headland theory" for defining national waters. They also denied
our right to navigate the Gut of Canso, which separates Cape Breton
Island from Nova Scotia, thus forcing far out of their nearest course
our ships bound for the permitted inshore fisheries. United States
fishermen on their part persisted in exploiting the great bays, landed
upon the Magdalen Islands, pushed through the Gut, and were none too
careful at any point to find or heed the three mile line.

June 5, 1854, was signed a treaty of reciprocity between the United
States and the British provinces, under which all the coasts of British
North America were opened to our fishing vessels, in return for similar
liberty to those of the provinces in all United States waters north of
Cape May, latitude 36 degrees, the salmon and shad fisheries of each
country being, however, reserved to itself. This arrangement was to
continue ten years at least, and then to be terminable on a year's
notice by either of the high contracting parties. Such notice having
been given by the United States one year before, reciprocity in fishing
privilege came to an end March 7, 1865. This, of course, renewed the wry
and perplexing rules of the 1818 convention, with all the naturally
consequent strife. The worst evils were, indeed, put off for a time, by
a continuance to our vessels of the right to fish in provincial water on
the payment of a small license fee. This favor was taken away in 1870,
for the alleged reason that American captains failed to procure
licenses, and in the course of this year many of our ships were seized
and confiscated. New sternness had been imparted to the provincial
policy by the Canadian Act of Confederation, valid from July I, 1867,
which joined Ontario and Quebec with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, thus
inspiring our neighbors to the north with a new sense of their strength
and importance.

[1871-1886]

Now came the Treaty of Washington, 1871. Its Article 18 revived Article
1 of the 1854 Reciprocity Treaty, except that Canadians could now go so
far south as the 39th parallel, and that two years' notice must precede
abrogation. Article 21 ordained between the two countries free trade in
fish-oil and in all salt-water fish. Bo