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following February a Definitive Treaty to this end was concluded at Paris. In this engagement, France renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia, Canada, Cape Breton, and all the other islands in the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. The article of the Treaty of Utrecht relating to the French privileges in the Newfoundland fishery was renewed and confirmed. The islands St. Pierre and Miquelon were ceded to France in full right, as a shelter to her fishermen, with the condition attached, that she was not to fortify the said islands, nor erect any buildings on them but such as were necessary for the convenience of the fishery, and that she was allowed to keep on them a guard of only fifty men for the purposes of a police. Spain, the other late belligerent power, was declared to have no part in the fishery whatever.

Many judged, at the time when this treaty was signed — and the complaint has often been repeated since that Great Britain, in an excess of magnanimity towards the principal enemy whom she had humbled in the recent war, again lost a good honest opportunity for removing the French altogether from these fisheries, which, if it had been taken advantage of, would, on the one hand, have put away a great occasion for future disputes, and on the other, have weakened the aggressive force of that power with which she has ever been most in danger of rivalry and strife. This was not only the opinion of ignorance and a narrow-minded selfishness, but a conclusion enforced by the conviction and the eloquence of the most far-seeing and patriotic British statesmen of that

age. When the preliminaries of the Peace of Paris were brought before Parliament, Pitt spoke earnestly against some of the terms of the Treaty. Suffering at the time from a severe attack of his old malady, the gout, which obliged him to address the House from his seat, he poured forth one of his masterpieces of oratory for the space of three hours and a half, in which, referring to his own conduct in relation to the fisheries of Newfoundland, he said "I contended several times in vain for the whole exclusive fishery, but I was overruled, I repeat I was overruled, not by the foreign enemy, but by another enemy.'

With the year 1749 commences a series of volumes still extant in their complete state, entitled, 'The Records of Newfoundland.' These have been kindly placed at the disposal of the author by Sir Alexander Bannerman, the present Governor. They contain a minute account kept by successive governors of their proceedings while administering the affairs of the colony. These memoranda are very voluminous, the greater part referring to transactions and provisions so identical in their character, that, compared with the space they fill, little can be extracted from them as contributing to the general history of the island. But there is much that is very curious and interesting, from the facts narrated or suggested, illustrating the condition of the country; the material and moral state of the people; the difficulties arising in the application of the limited measure of legislation which had been introduced, and especially the kind of work imposed on successive representatives of the Sovereign in

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reference to matters civil and military, legal and social, on which, according to the best light available, they had to act or decide. On the whole, these volumes form a mine of valuable information. It is a mine, too, which hitherto has not been explored to procure materials for a history of the island, and, on this account, it will be largely drawn upon for the further prosecution of this work.

The first name which appears in these records, as bearing the commission of governor, is that of George Bridges Rodney, a man who, at a later period, played a distinguished part in the naval service of his country, for which he was ennobled by his Sovereign, and who is still associated with cherished traditions in the British fleet. During his government of Newfoundland he displayed the simplicity and earnestness characteristic of his profession, and this often combined with a penetrating capacity which is sometimes wanting in those who have had a more exclusive training in the routine of governmental official life. The following extract from a letter which has been preserved, will at once illustrate these points in his character, and at the same time afford a glimpse of the selfishness of the parties to whose conduct he refers, and who, it should be remembered, had been accustomed to have their own way in the colony. The fishery not having been a very successful one, certain merchants at Harbour Grace had applied to the resident magistrate to be allowed to reduce the amount of wages which they were under agreement to give to the servants hired for the voyage. This

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request was transmitted by the magistrate to Captain Rodney, and here is his reply:

SIR, I was favoured with both your letters since my arrival in the country, and am very sorry to find the season proves so bad for the merchants, boatkeepers, servants and others; and in regard to what you have laid before me, concerning the merchants' request, that the servants may bear an equal proportion with them in their losses, I can by no means approve of it, as both equity and law declare the labourer to be worthy of his hire.

Mr. Drake and myself would be glad to ease the merchants in all that lay in our power, but we are by no means capable of committing so flagrant a piece of injustice as desired, to serve any people whatever. I have only one question to ask, namely, had the season been good in proportion as it has proved bad, would the merchants or boatkeepers have raised the men's wages?

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

To George Garland, Esq.

G. B. R.

One of the most prominent facts impressed on the mind in examining the Records-a fact which often makes these volumes a weariness to read-is the multiplicity, embracing every variety, of affairs which devolved personally on the on the governor. As As representative of the Crown, he had to receive and transmit communications between the Privy Council and himself. As commander-in-chief of the forces, and commodore of the station-the two responsibilities being generally combined he had to receive reports from the several garrisons, to examine their accounts, to issue orders for their regulation and for things needful to them, even to the supply of fire and candle, to direct the

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movements of the cruising ships, and to take measures against the very prevalent evil of desertion. As chief administrator of the laws, he had to impose oaths on the magistrates, to instruct them, in detail, as to their functions in continually changing exigencies; to summon courts civil and criminal; to preside over them in St. John's; to appoint surrogates or deputies to perform the same duty in other districts; to receive and examine a minute account of the proceedings of the latter; and in all cases to order the execution of the decrees of the courts. Much of the business which came before the Governor, and on which he had finally to decide, was of a most difficult nature: such as settling rival claims to property, defining boundaries, redressing encroachments, judging of the validity of wills, scrutinising the accounts between creditor and debtor, fixing the amount which the latter had to pay, and the time and manner of paying it. These and many other demands occupied every governor during the months of his brief stay at the island-and this often when his vigilance was taxed to guard the coast against the national foes.

It was not until after Rodney's administration, that a regular assize for the trial of criminals, technically called Oyer and Terminer, was instituted. During his time, and previously, the Governor himself had to receive the complaints of wrongs done, and take steps for their redress, and the punishment of offenders. On September 4, 1749, there was held, what is termed in the index to the record, the Governor's Court, before which there came a case which affords a glimpse