any part of the said coasts in their occupancy for the same purpose. It is understood that the above-mentioned liberty applies solely to the sea fishery, and that salmon and shad fisheries, and all fisheries in rivers and mouths of rivers, are hereby reserved exclusively for fishermen of the United States."

Differences having arisen as regards the extent of the renunciation made by the United States as expressed in the Convention of 1818, and several seizures of American vessels having been made in Canada, a Bill was passed in the United States on February 28, 1887, authorizing the President to protect and defend the rights of American fishing vessels, American fishermen, American trading and other vessels, in certain cases. But the difference has been adjusted by the appointment of a Fishery Commission, composed of three members from each side, with power to deal with all the questions affecting the North American Fisheries.

North Sea Fisheries.-Convention between Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, for regulating the Police of the North Sea Fisheries, May 15, 1882.

"1. The provisions of the present Convention, the object of which is to regulate the police of the fisheries in the North Sea outside territorial waters, shall apply to the subjects of the high contracting parties.

"2. The fishermen of each country shall enjoy the exclusive right of fishery within the distance of three miles from low-water mark along the whole extent of the coasts of their respective countries, as well as of their dependent islands and banks. As regards bays, the distance of three miles shall be measured from a straight line drawn across the bay, in the part nearest the entrance, at the first point where the width does not exceed ten miles.

"The present Article shall not in any way prejudice the freedom of navigation and anchorage in territorial waters accorded to fishing boats, provided they conform to the special police regulations enacted by the Powers to whom the shores belong.

"3. The miles mentioned in the preceding Article are geographical miles, whereof sixty make a degree of latitude."

Art. 4 fixes the limits of the North Sea.

See also the following Treaties:

Newfoundland, Great Britain, and France, January 14, 1857.

Russia and Sweden, April 6, 1872.

Baden and Switzerland, March 25, 1875.
Austria and Italy, November 24, 1875.
Italy and Switzerland, November 8, 1882.
Belgium and Netherlands, September 3, 1884.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SLAVE-TRADE.

220. THE status of slavery is abolished in all civilized States.

Bologna in 1256 enfranchised all the slaves. In 1289 slavery was abolished in Florence.

A decision of the Courts in England in 1772, in the case of the negro (Somerset v. Stewart, Lofft 1), declared that as soon as a slave set his foot on English soil he became free. Cooper, writing in 1784, in his "Task says, Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free; they touch our country and their shackles fall." This sentiment re-echoed that of an earlier writer relating to France: Servi peregrini, ut primum Galliæ fines penetraverint eodem momento liberi siunt" (Boedinus, lib. i. c. 5).

221. The slave-trade is illegal, and those who deal in slaves commit a crime.

In 1787 a society was formed in London for the suppression of the slave-trade; an Order in Council in 1805 prohibited the slave-trade in the British West Indies; and on March 25, 1807, an Act was passed

making all slave-trade illegal after January 1, 1808. By Treaties concluded with Portugal on February 19, 1810, and with Denmark on January 14, 1814, stipu lations were made in favour of the abolition of the slave-trade. And by the Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, it was provided that France should unite with England in obtaining, at a future Congress, from all Christian Powers the abolition of the slave-trade. The Congress of Vienna of 1815, of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1818, of Verona in 1822, adopted the same principle. But notwithstanding these special Treaties between the different Powers, the abolition of the slave-trade was not held as a principle of international Law. In 1841 a Treaty was concluded between Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia, which not only declared the slave-trade illegal, but gave to the contracting Powers a right of searching merchant vessels suspected of being engaged in the same. France, however, refused to ratify the Treaty, and the other Powers ratified it on February 19, 1842. Since then the leading Powers have given their concurrence to this principle, and have entered into obligations to co-operate in preventing the slave-trade. The principal clauses of the Treaties are as follows:

[Treaty clauses between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, signed at London, December 20, 1851; France, May 29, 1845; Belgium, February 24, 1848; the Netherlands, May 4, 1818, and August 31, 1848; the United States, February 17, 1862, and June

3, 1870; Portugal, July 3, 1842, and July 18, 1871; Egypt, August 4, 1877; Germany, March 29, 1879; Turkey, January 25, 1883.]

222. The Treaty Powers engage to prohibit all trade in slaves, either by their respective subjects or under their respective flags, or by means of capital belonging to their respective subjects, and to declare such traffic piracy. Also that any vessel which may attempt to carry on the slave-trade shall by that fact alone lose all right to the protection of their flag.

223. The contracting parties consent that ships of war may be provided with power to search every merchant vessel belonging to any one of the contracting parties which shall, on reasonable grounds, be suspected of being engaged in the traffic in slaves, or of having been fitted out for that purpose, or of having been engaged in the traffic during the voyage in which she shall have been met with by the said cruisers, and that such cruisers may detain and send or carry away such vessels, in order that they may be sent to trial; the said essential right of search not to be exercised within the Mediterranean Sea.