it being expressly understood, however, "that the permission. granted by this Article is not to extend to allow the vessels of the United States to carry on any part of the coasting trade of the said British territories."

It will be noticed that the clauses in these treaties are similar to those contained in the various treaties made by the United States with other countries quoted above; and it becomes significant when we find the same provisions scrupulously inserted by England in some score of treaties, conventions, and decrees made between that country and foreign nations between the years 1826 and 1883.

It appears that the United States has expressly excepted its coastwise trade in thirty-one treaties with other commercial countries, while Great Britain on her part has also solemnly and diplomatically made the same reservation in thirty-one treaties with foreign nations, so that no fewer than forty-seven commercial countries among the international federation of friendly powers of the world have by treaty pronounced themselves in favor of the inviolability of home or coastwise trade from foreign intrusion; and those countries that have not so formally expressed themselves have by their local laws or immemorial custom tenaciously declined to place their coasting vessels on an equality with or in the same category as foreign vessels. This right of a nation to dominate over its own domestic maritime trade has been of such constant and unquestioned recognition that it has become practically a principle of the law of nations. The usage of nations is the best guide in the interpretation of treaties, and if one takes this as evidence of how the treaty-making Powers of the world have accepted and understood the terms "vessels of commerce of . nations," or "vessels," it becomes evident that they have never in a single instance been regarded as referring to or including any vessels but those engaged in the overseas commerce and as not

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embracing the coasting trade. All nations have joined in establishing this principle and have insisted in perpetuating it; many under express treaty stipulations, while those nations who have not thus formally recorded their approval of the doctrine have nevertheless done so tacitly, and by themselves either by adopting laws to this effect, or by applying other and different duties and charges to vessels engaged in foreign commerce than to those following the coastwise trade.

It may be argued that these treaty provisions specifically exempting coastwise vessels are evidence that Great Britain. and the United States, in omitting them in their treaties, thereby recognized that the treaties between these countries included both foreign and coastwise vessels; but such an argument is without merit, because the fact exists to-day as it has for generations, that England herself discriminates in favor of her own vessels engaged in the coasting trade. The Treaty of 1815 provides "that no higher or other duties or charges shall be imposed . . . in the ports of any of His Britannick Majesty's territories in Europe on the vessels of the United States than shall be payable in the same ports on British vessels."

If England's interpretation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty holds good, then how does she justify under the language just quoted of the Treaty of 1815 her discrimination in tonnage duties in favor of her coasting vessels? And yet this is precisely what she has always done, and is doing to-day. No explanation or recrimination can alter the fact that Great Britain has always adhered tenaciously, like other sea-girt nations, to the policy of favoring coastwise vessels, and that wherever Britannia rules they form a class separate and distinct from vessels employed in foreign trade, and that they have always been excepted from the term "vessels " as used in all international agreements. So true is this that it would seem unnecessary to go into details, although abundant proof is at hand.

Take, for instance, the port of Bristol. Every vessel entering from or departing for the East Coast of the United States of America (including ports of the United States of America in the Gulf of Mexico) pays one shilling one penny half-penny per register ton; while every vessel entering or departing for the Channel Islands, Ireland, the Isle of Man, or any part of Great Britain, not including Barry, Penarth, Cardiff, Newport, and other ports to the eastward of the Holmes, pays only five pence per registered ton.

From a comparison of the foregoing port charges, it appears that an American vessel of 5,000 tons, on entering or departing from the port of Bristol from or for the East Coast of America, pays tonnage dues at the rate of twentyeight cents per ton, or fifty-six cents for entering and departing, while vessels entering or departing for the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or any part of Great Britain with a few exceptions, pay only ten cents a ton, or twenty cents. for both entering and departing. At these rates an American vessel of 5,000 tons arriving from over seas is compelled to pay at the port of Bristol on entering or departing ninety dollars tonnage dues, or on entering and departing one hundred and eighty dollars, while if no other or higher duties or charges were imposed than those payable in the same ports on British vessels according to the treaty of 1815, then such American vessel would only have to pay fifty dollars on entering or departing, or one hundred dollars on entering and departing, making a difference in the first instance of forty dollars and in the second of eighty dollars. This may not be discrimination according to English views, but it looks exceedingly like it from an American standpoint.

The rates and dues exacted at the port of Liverpool (Mersey Docks and Harbour Board) afford some startling illustrations of this discrimination. Dock tonnage rates on vessels are imposed according to the class of voyage, that is to say, the vessel's destination. Those coming within

Class 6, which includes all ports on the East Coast of North America, pay one shilling and four pence per ton, while those under Class 2, between the Mull of Galloway and Duncan's Bay Head, including the Orkney Isles and all the islands on the Western Coast of Scotland, and between St. David's Head and the Land's End, including the Scilly Island and the East Coast of Ireland from Cape Clear to Malling Head, pay four pence half-penny per ton: and those included in Class 3, covering all parts of the East and Southern Coasts of Great Britain between Duncan's Bay Head and the Land's End, including the Islands of Shetland and all parts of the West Coast of Ireland from Cape Clear to Malling Head, including the Islands on that Coast, pay six pence per ton.

Harbour rates on vessels bear out the same discrimination. Those under Class 2 pay 5/8ths of a penny per ton; those under Class 3 pay 3/4ths of a penny per ton, while vessels under Class 6, embracing the transatlantic trade, have to pay one penny half-penny per ton or exactly double. There are also differential dock tonnage rates on vessels in which the same discrimination is carried out as they provide for one-half of the rates specified under Classes 2, 3 and 6.

Wharf rates on vessels are as follows:-Under Class 2, one penny 1/8th per ton; under Class 3, one penny half-penny per ton; and under Class 6, four pence per ton. This is a clear preference in favour of domestic coasting vessels as against vessels engaged in foreign or over-seas trade of two pence half-penny per ton.

These figures of the Port of Liverpool furnish additional examples of the same rigid discrimination in favor of England's coasting vessels. American vessels coming across seas, for entering and leaving port pay harbour rates of thirty-three cents a ton, while some coasters pay only nine cents a ton or twenty-seven cents per ton less than the American vessel.

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Tonnage dues at the Port of London are as follows:(1) For every vessel trading coastwise or entering inwards or clearing outwards from or to any place north of latitude 48° 30' N., and between longitude 12° W. and 65° East of Greenwich, for every voyage both in and out, one penny per ton. (2) For every vessel entering inwards or clearing outwards beyond those limits, one penny half-penny per ton. (3) For vessels under 100 tons which do not pass beyond the seaward limit of the port, a half-penny per ton. (4) Coastwise vessels not exceeding 45 tons, vessels bringing corn coastwise, fishing smacks and lobster and oyster boats, are exempt from dues.

This discrimination of one cent a ton for entering and clearing port in favor of coastwise vessels and against. trans-Atlantic vessels may on first impression seem trifling, but when on calculation it is found that on a vessel of 5,000 tons this additional one cent per ton on entering and leaving port amounts to 50 dollars, it is evident that all sense of equality between ocean-going vessels and those employed in the home trade only is completely discarded.

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If England for a moment believed that the words "British vessels or vessels of the United States' as used in the Treaty of 1815 included or was ever intended to include coasting vessels, she would not have established and enforced differential rates at her various ports in favor of coasting vessels, for that would then be a flagrant violation of the rights secured to vessels of the United States under the treaty. Not only this, but such an interpretation on the part of England would afford the United States to justly demand that vessels of the United States pay the same dues and charges at British ports as are exacted from British vessels engaged in the coastwise trade, instead of those largely increased and heavier dues and charges that American vessels have to pay.