George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[211] Utrecht,¹ France agreed not to fish within thirty

Chap. IX.} 1779.

leagues of the coast of Nova Scotia; and by that of Paris, not to fish within fifteen leagues of Cape Breton.² Moreover, New England at the beginning of the war had by act of parliament been debarred from fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. What right of legislation respecting them would remain at the peace to the parliament of England? Were they free to the mariners of all nations? and what limit was set to the coast fisheries by the law of nature and of nations? ‘The fishery on the high seas,’ so Vergennes expounded the law of nations, ‘is as free as the sea itself, and it is superfluous to discuss the right of the Americans to it. But the coast fisheries belong of right to the proprietary of the coast. Therefore the fisheries on the coasts of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, of Canada, belong exclusively to the English; and the Americans have no pretension whatever to share in them.’³

But they had hitherto almost alone engaged in the fisheries on the coast of Nova Scotia and in the gulf of St. Lawrence; deeming themselves to have gained a right to them by exclusive and immemorial usage. Further, the New England men had planned and had alone furnished land forces for the first reduction of Cape Breton, and had assisted in the acquisition of Nova Scotia and Canada. The fisheries on their coasts seemed to them, therefore, a perpetual joint property. Against this Vergennes argued that the conquest had been made for the crown of Great