DISPUTED BOUNDARIES.

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thirds of the eastern shores, the whole of the northern, and one-third of the western, of a very extensive and important possession of the British Crown. A difficulty subsequently arose as to the proper interpretation of the treaty—the boundary, Point Riche, being so little known as to cause a dispute in reference to its local position; the French asserting, on the authority of a single map, that it was identical with Cape Ray in the extreme south-west; the British declaring, on more extensive testimony, that its place was nearly three degrees further north, an important difference, as it involved about a hundred and eighty miles of coast, including valuable harbours. This was a dispute, however, which did not come up until a long period after the treaty, and, therefore, its settlement must be left to be accounted for in its proper place.

There can be no doubt that, considering the relative position of the parties concerned, the French obtained the advantage in the treaty of Utrecht. They had been the losers in the war- a contest which had been provoked by their ambitious designs on the independence of nations. Peace had become a matter of absolute necessity to them to save the kingdom from ruin. It is unquestionable that if the British Government had pushed the superiority which they had achieved by victory and success, they might have dictated their own terms, and have excluded their late enemy from all right either in Newfoundland or Cape Breton. But, as has been said, magnanimity and generosity prevailed in the councils of the triumphant

E

side. Had it been otherwise, it is probable that it would have been better for Newfoundland, and have saved the mother-country many a difficulty and much burdensome expense. Then the colony would have escaped petty disputes which are continually arising even to this day; its fishermen and merchants would not have had to sustain such a powerful rivalry in foreign markets, and the trade might have been preserved from the fear, now often expressed, of a diminution and failure in what once was deemed an inexhaustible mine of piscatorial wealth. Nor, perhaps, would the advantage have been less to the home interests and people of England if her rulers, a century and a half ago, had made a more high-handed use of the power which Providence had given them, to secure exclusive possession of these shores and seas. In them France has found the principal nursery for that fleet which now and again occasions a sometimes ignoble panic in respect to the maintenance of our naval supremacy. But for the increase and the training of seamen promoted by the enjoyment of the free use of these western fisheries, Englishmen might have smiled serenely on the offensive fortification of Brest and Cherbourg, or rather, the Brest and Cherbourg of to-day would not have existed to provoke either their apprehensions or their smiles.

The internal arrangements affecting the people interested in Newfoundland, whether as settlers or as engaged annually in the fishery, during the period of the war with France, and in subsequent years until

STATUTE OF WILLIAM III.

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1728, are of some importance, though presenting a picture of a social condition which it is not very inviting to review. The close of the seventeenth century was signalised by the enactment of a law well known in the history of the colony, as the Statute of William III. A brief examination of that law, and of the mode of its operation previous to the issuing of other regulations, will throw some light on the state of the country at this time.

The preamble to the statute affirms the value to Great Britain of this part of her dominions, and asserts the free and extensive right of all her subjects to fish in the waters, and to make use of any part of the shore for the furtherance of the fishery. The tenor of the various sections of the Act plainly shows that its great object was to consult the interests of the trade as prosecuted by adventurers from the old country. The next object being to make the fishery contribute, by the training of seamen, to the materials for the naval defence of the nation. The inhabitants are referred to, all through, as existing only by tolerance, enjoying such privileges as could be spared after full provision being made for more favoured parties. The most convenient parts of the harbours and coves are supposed to belong to the fishing ships. On these chosen spots the owners of the vessels had the right to erect stages, flakes, cook-rooms, train-vats and other needful appurtenances, which they could use during the season, and then leave standing, to be found uninjured when the fishing time came round again. Section V. enacts that every such inhabitant as since

1685 has taken possession of any stage, cook-room, beach, &c., for taking bait and fishing, or for the drying, curing and husbanding of fish, shall forthwith quit and leave these to the public use of the fishing ships arriving there. The next section declares that no inhabitant shall take up any beach or place, until all such ships are provided for. The harshness of these rules is somewhat modified in the seventh clause by a proviso, that all such inhabitants as since 1685 had built (unchallenged by fishing ships) any houses, stages, cook-rooms, &c., should enjoy the same without disturbance. Section IX. requires that 'all masters of fishing ships shall carry with them one fresh man that never was at sea before, in every five men they carry:' but that every inhabitant or by-boat-keeper (persons who went out to keep boats for a fishing voyage) should have at least two fresh men in six, viz. one man that hath made no more than one voyage and one who hath never been to sea before.' Other clauses in this Act forbid wanton injury to be done to the woods around the fishing harbours; regulate the conduct of the fishermen towards each other, and in regard to the baits, nets, saynes, &c., employed in the craft, and make provision for the decent observance of the Lord's-day by all classes of the people. But the most important part of this ancient statute, as dealing with the matter of greatest necessity, respected the executive authority, by which these rules, or indeed any laws whatever, were to be carried out. bearing on this point there are two sections in the Act. The thirteenth, acknowledging the frequent failures

As

REMARKABLE CLAUSE IN THE ACT.

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which had attended the bringing of criminals to justice, because the trial of such offenders had been adjudged in no other court but before the Lord High Constable, or Earl Marshal of England, provided for the more speedy and effectual punishment of such offenders by ordering that they might be tried at the usual assizes in any shire or county of the Kingdom of England. Thus, notwithstanding this improvement, persons accused of any theft, robbery, murder, or other felony, had the prospect (comfortable if guilty, dreary if innocent) of a voyage of two thousand miles before their guilt or innocence could be proved.

The most remarkable clause in the Act, as denoting the only local government in the island, remains to be noticed. Section IV. says that the master of any such fishing ship from England, Wales, or Berwick, as shall first enter any harbour or creek in Newfoundland, shall be Admiral of the said harbour or creek during the fishing season, and that the master of any such second ship shall be Vice-Admiral of such harbour or creek, and that the master of every such fishing ship next coming shall be Rear-Admiral of such harbour or creek. The first of these chance Admirals was to have the privilege of choosing and reserving to himself so much beach or flakes, or both, as was needful for his own use in the voyage. In Sections XIV. and XV. it is enacted that these Admirals shall see to the execution of the rules of the statute-shall keep a journal of all things relating to the fishery, to be presented to the Privy Council, and shall authoritatively determine all differences between masters of