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success, should finally miscarry by the arts made use of to secure the Royal disallowance of it. In the inclosed paper you will see a copy of the vote of the Common Council. The committee have applied to the Attorney General[1] and he, I understand, has undertaken to draw up their petition and remonstrance against the law. Altho' I cannot believe that it will be attended to, 1 think we must make every exertion to prevent its success. It is not improbable that in consequence of the daubing resolutions of the Common Council respecting Lord Sheffield, his little picture, etc.,[2] some attempt may be made to interest him in their favor; this must be guarded against, and I know not who can do it but yourself. To enable you to make a fair representation to him, I have sketched some leading facts in the inclosed paper which you may dress in your own way, and add to them whatever you please."
The efforts of Ward Chipman and his friends were fruitless. Early in 1808 they were informed of the disallowance by the King in Council of the New Brunswick Act "For ascertaining the right of Fishery." William Knox, the Province Agent in England, in making the announcement wrote, "The Master of the Rolls was unfortunately one of the Committee of Council who had to determine upon it, and he is too good a lawyer to permit a provincial legislature to abrogate a law of England." It would therefore appear that the view of Chief Justice Ludlow respecting the non-existence of private rights in navigable waters was sustained by His Majesty's Privy Council.
Another attempt was made in the New Brunswick legislature in the year 1830 to pass an Act of a somewhat similar nature, but the bill, after passing the Assembly with some amendment, was lost in the Council.
The period of active controversy over the fishery question lasted nearly half a century. The elder Ward Chipman, William Hazen and James White all died before it ended. Only James Simonds was living in 1830 when the last general attempt to perpetuate the claim to the shore fisheries failed, and he died at