is that the acquisition of sovereignty by the United States did not alter or affect the obligation they were under in regard to British shipping.
The Tolls to be Imposed.
From that time the work on the Panama Canal was pushed on, and the project has been carried through to a successful issue with that splendid energy and fertility of resource which is characteristic of the American nation. And now the work is approaching completion, and the question of construction of the Treaty has been raised in a direct way by a publication of the list of tolls to be charged on shipping using the Canal. That list has been issued under the authority of an Act passed in 1912 entitled the Panama Canal Act, under which the Legislature of the United States have assumed powers with regard to tolls, which, in the view of His Majesty's Government, are contrary to the stipulations of 1901. I need not trouble you with any detailed examination of the Act; it is composed of fourteen sections, and there are many matters included within it which are not relevant to the exact issues we are engaged in discussing, although some of them may become of importance in the future. It is only necessary to-day to refer to section 5. This section authorizes the President to prescribe, and from time to time to change the tolls to be levied, and it makes two provisions in regard to those tolls which are material. In the first place, it provides that the tolls when based on net registered tonnage shall not exceed one dollar and twenty-five cents per ton, nor be less, other than for vessels of the United States and its citizens, than the estimated proportionate cost of the actual maintenance and operation of the Canal. In the second place, it enacts positively that no tolls shall be levied upon vessels engaged in the
