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proceedings instituted against Mr. Hazen as "the most damnable and malicious persecution that was ever witnessed in a civil society."
By the decision of the Supreme Court in 1804 the control of the shore fisheries from Portland Point to the falls was virtually taken out of the hands of Mr. Hazen and his old partners despite Governor Carleton's license of occupation. The following year a decision of Chief Justice Ludlow respecting the rights of fishery in the cove eastward of Portland Point practically removed all claims to a monopoly in that quarter. This we learn from Ward Chipman's letter of October 5, 1805, to Edward Winslow—the latter then being in England. Chipman says:
"Our Government goes very smoothly on, the President (Col. Ludlow), more retired than ever at Carleton, and everything done by a committee of council of which the Chief Justice is the head. In his judicial capacity he has lately given a death blow to all the piscary interests of our good friend, Mr. Hazen. The latter brought an action for trespass against certain parties for taking possession of his weir erected upon the flats on the east side of the Point within the boundaries of his grant near the King's Provision store, of which he proved himself to have been in possession 40 years—but the Chief, without hesitation, directed the jury that it was an arm of the sea and common to all; that even if the fisheries there had been expressly granted to him, the grant would not have been worth a farthing. That the grant of the city fisheries (by charter) was good for nothing, and that the citizens therefore applied to the General Assembly to confirm it by a law. Such tergiversation, such unfounded thirst for popularity with the fishermen here is too provoking! We mean to resist such decisions and, if we can, to appeal in the last resort to the King in council. I wish you could procure some opinions on the subject from the law characters you may fall in with. Το me it appears absurd to apply the obsolete articles of Magna Charta and principles of the Common Law to this country whose settlement depends upon principles and practice diametrically opposite to them."
Atter the overseers of the fishery had in 1800 staked out the lots along the north shore of the harbor, the Portland fishermen continued for a few years to enjoy some benefit from the salmon fishery by retaining