The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-12

do? General Grant, then, is the foremost
man, and the Republicans have the best
chance with him of holding power, bnt if by
chance the Democrats should gain the next
Presidential election it will be through the
mistakes and unpopularity of the Republi-
cans, and not from any positive merits of
their own. What the country really wants
are live issues and strong public men.
THE FISHERIES QUESTION.
From the NJ Y. Times.
The Canadian authorities will commit
grievous blnnder if they act upon the sup
position that the fisheries question will for
the time be terminated by the stoppage of
the bonding facilities hitherto enjoyed by
the provinces, or by the exclusion of their
vessels from United States waters. These
are retaliatory measures which the Cana
dians, sneer at them as they may, will vince
under whenever they are put into operation.
The privilege of transporting goods in bond
through this country may not be essential to
the commercial existence of Ontario, but
without it the merchants of that province
will be at the mercy of their rivals in Quebec.
The Toronto Leader does not magnify the
effect of the measure upon the convenience
and fortunes of its people when it declares
that all their ''fortitude" will be required ''to
support the Oominion) Government in the
policy 1t may determine to pursue" How
long colonial obstinacy and buster can be re-
lied upon to Withstand pressure which will
to some extent crush their material interests,
time will determine. For the moment, the
Dominion officials assume an air of defiance
They ''have no idea of abandoning their
present line of policy" an Ottawa despatch
informs us. We are quite prepared to be-
ieve that they are foolish enough to cling to
pretensions which the United States repu-
diate, and which President Grant avows his
purpose to resist.
1t is for this aspect of the question that we
advise our Canadian neighbors to prepare
They are at liberty to be friendly or un-
friendly in their general treatment of Ameri-
can fishermen, and to pursue a generous
policy, or a dog-in-the- e-manger policy, in re-
gard to the navigation of the st. Lawrence
These are small matters in comparison with
the vital point at stake in the controversy
Their Interpretation of the Convention of
1918, so far as it defines the limit within
which American fishermen shall not pursue
their calling, is an Interpretation to which
this country will not submit, Neither Great
Britain nor the Dominion should delude
itself with the idea that a doctrine invented
by Nova Scotia pettifoggers, long after the
convention had been agreed upon, and by the
application of which the most valuable fishing
grounds are monopolized by the provincials,
ever was or ever will be acquiesced in by the
United States. Its assertion in 1852 brought
the two countries to the verge of war; its re-
assertion in 1870 brings us face to face with
the same contingency. For some years the
Reciprocity treaty averted the discussion,
but its real character has undergone no
change in the interval. The provincial
claim, as now asserted, rests altogether
upon the rendering of stipulations which
were not intended, and cannot be allowed,
to convert waters that belong as much to
ourselves as to the provinces into the excu-
slve property of the latter. We reject that
claim as unsound in law, as at variance with
the rights of mankind and of nations, and as
too absurd and unjust to be tolerated The
time has come when it must be met and dis
posed of forever No reciprocity treaty is
available to conceal it now. The provinces
must practically abandon it, or the Govern
ment of this country will be compelled to
vindicate its right, and protect an important
class of its citizens, who are now sufferers
from provincial injustice and rapacity.
The offensive legislation of the Dominion
to which the President adverts in his mes
sage, all turns upon the British version of
of the Convention of 1878. The seizures
and forfeitures continually reported are legiti-
mate consequences of the provincial preten-
sion to the exclusive ownership of the waters
that are profitable to fishermen. There has
been needless offensveness in the manner
in which British officials have conducted
themselves. They have seized vessels with
ont warning They have forfeited vessels,
and stores, and cargoes without regard for
equity, and with sovereign contempt for
rights which this country never relinquished
They have at length enforced the m 9st
odious provisions of their law, by
seizing Massachusetts schooner, on ths
pretext, as alleged in Congress, ''that she
had on board too much provisions for tg)
months fishing voyage" The intent of
these proceedings it is not difficult to under
stand. The Dominion Government hoped,
by harassing American fishermen, to exact
from this country commercial concessions
that are essential to the prosperity of the
maritime provinces. The effect has been
exactly opposite. Even those who were ori-
ginally friendly to reciprocity refuse to en-
terrain it under circumstances which imply a
recognition of Canada's preposterous claim.
Our people are heartily with the President in
the position he has assumed. They will not
only sustain him in the exercise of the power
which Congress is asked to confer, but they
will require of him bold assertion of the
American interpretatiou of right as onDosed