=Bering Sea Question.= Arose out of a dispute as to the seal-fisheries of Bering Sea. Several Canadian sealers were seized by the United States in 1886, on the plea that these waters constituted a _mare clausum_, or closed sea. Similar seizures were made in 1887 and 1889. Finally the British and United States governments agreed to submit the question to arbitration. The Commission met at Paris in 1893. Lord Hannen and Sir John Thompson represented British interests; the United States was represented by Judge Harlan and Senator Morgan. The other arbitrators were Marquis Visconti Venosta of Italy, Gregora W. Gram of Sweden, and Baron de Courcel of Belgium, who presided. The decision was in favour of Great Britain, and contrary to the claim of the United States to jurisdiction over the waters of the Bering Sea and the seals visiting the coasts and islands of Alaska. Regulations were provided for the better protection of the fisheries; and the United States was required to compensate the Canadian sealers for the unlawful seizure of their vessels. =Index=: =D= Influenced by Russian occupation, 38; settled under Paris award, 1897, 283; history of dispute 340-341. =Berkeley, George Cranfield= (1753-1818). Entered the navy, 1766; accompanied Cook in survey of coast of Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1766-1769; and was on the _Victory_ at Ushant, 1778. In 1786 surveyor-general of ordnance, 1786; and vice-admiral on the Halifax station, 1805-1807, during which time occurred the affair between the _Chesapeake_ and the _Leopard_. =Index=: =Bk= Gave instructions in matter of deserters enlisted in _Chesapeake_, 83; recalled, 85. =Bib.=: _Dict. Nat. Biog._ =Berlin Decrees.= Issued by Napoleon, November, 1806, to the following effect: The British Isles were in a state of blockade; intercourse with them was prohibited; all British subjects within French authority were to be held as prisoners of war; all British property, private and public, was declared to be prize of war; also merchandise from Britain; merchants whose property had been captured by British cruisers were to be indemnified from the product of such seizures; no British ships were to be admitted into any port of France, or her allies; every vessel eluding this rule was to be confiscated. The object of the decrees was to close the continent against British commerce. The British government retaliated by issuing an order-in-council, refusing to neutrals the right of trading from one hostile port to another. =Index=: =Bk= Directed by Napoleon against commerce of Great Britain, 81, 82, 105, 171, 172. =Bib.:= _Dict. Eng. Hist._; Green, _Short History of the English People_; Kingsford, _History of Canada_.