among the parishes of the kingdom “for the encouragement of adventures unto plantation there.” A year after the departure of Whitbourne, Sir George Calvert, afterwards the first Lord Baltimore, obtained a patent conveying to him the lordship of the whole southern peninsula of Newfoundland, and the right of fishing in the surrounding waters. He planted a colony at Ferryland, 40 m. north of Cape Race, where he built a handsome mansion and resided with his family for many years. The French so harassed his settlement by incessant attacks that he at length abandoned it.
In 1650, or about a century and a half after its discovery, Newfoundland contained only 350 families, or less than 2000 individuals, distributed in fifteen small settlements, chiefly along the eastern shore. These constituted the resident population; but in addition there was a floating population of several thousands who frequented the Fishery policy. shores during the summer for the sake of the fisheries, which had now attained very large dimensions. So early as 1626, 150 vessels were annually despatched from Devonshire alone; and the shipowners and traders residing in the west of England sent out their ships and fishing crews early in summer to prosecute these lucrative fisheries. The fish caught were salted and dried on the shore; and on the approach of winter the fishermen re-embarked for England, carrying with them the products of their labour. Hence it became the interest of these traders and shipowners to discourage the settlement of the country, in order to retain the exclusive use of the harbours and fishing coves for their servants, and also a monopoly of the fisheries. They were able to enlist the British government of the day in their project, and stringent laws were passed prohibiting settlement within 6 m. of the shore, forbidding fishermen to remain behind at the close of the fishing season, and rendering it illegal to build or repair a house without a special licence. The object of this short-sighted policy, which was persisted in for more than a century, was to preserve the island as a fishing station and the fisheries as nurseries for British seamen.
There was, however, another element which retarded the prosperity of the country. The French had early realized the immense value of the fisheries, and strove long and desperately to obtain possession of the island. Their constant attacks and encroachments harassed the few settlers, and rendered life and property insecure during the long Treaty of Utrecht. wars between England and France. When at length, in 1713, the treaty of Utrecht ended hostilities, it did not deliver Newfoundland from the grasp of France, as it yielded to her the right of catching and drying fish on the western and northern sides of the island. Though no territorial rights were conferred on the French, and the sovereignty was secured to England, the practical effect was to exclude the inhabitants from the fairest half of the island.
In spite of the restrictive regulations, the number of the resident population continued to increase. The sturdy settlers clung to the soil, and combated the “adventurers” as the merchants were called, and after a lengthened conflict obtained freedom of settlement and relief from oppression. But the contest was severe and prolonged. The First governor. merchant-adventurers strenuously opposed the appointment of a governor; but at length, in 1728, the British government appointed Captain Henry Osborne first governor of Newfoundland, with a commission to establish a form of civil government. This constituted a new era in the history of the colony. In 1763 the fixed inhabitants had increased to 8000, while 5000 more were summer residents who returned home each winter. In 1763 the coast of Labrador, from Hudson’s Strait to the river St John opposite the west end of the island of Anticosti, was attached to the governorship of Newfoundland. The population in 1785 had increased to 10,000. During the wars between England and France which followed the French Revolution, Newfoundland attained great prosperity, as all competitors in the fisheries were swept from the seas, and the markets of Europe were exclusively in the hands of the merchants of the country. The value of fish trebled, wages rose to a high figure, and in 1814 no less than 7000 emigrants arrived. The population now numbered 80,000. In 1832 representative government was granted to the colony, and provision was made for education. In 1846 a terrible fire destroyed three-fourths of St John’s and with it an enormous amount of property; but the city rose from its ashes improved and beautified. In 1855 the system of responsible government was inaugurated. In 1858 the first Atlantic cable was landed at Bull Arm, Trinity Bay. Unproductive fisheries, causing a widespread destitution among the working classes, marked the first eight years of the Recent history. decade between 1860 and 1870. A system of able-bodied pauper relief was initiated to meet the necessities of the case but was attended with the usual demoralizing results. The necessity of extending the cultivation of the soil in order to meet the wants of the growing population was felt more and more as the pressure arising from the failure of the fisheries showed their precarious nature more sensibly. In 1864 copper ore was discovered in the north, and mining operations were successfully initiated. In 1869 a series of successful fisheries began which enabled the government to terminate the injurious system of able-bodied pauper relief. In 1871 the revenue rose to $831,160. In 1873 direct steam communication with England and America was established.
By the treaty of Utrecht of 1713 a right was reserved to French subjects to catch fish and to dry them on that part of Newfoundland which stretches from Cape Bonavista to the northern part of the island and from thence coming down by the western side reaches as far as Pt. Riche. By the treaty of Versailles of 1783 France renounced French claims. the fishery from Bonavista to Cape St John on the east coast, receiving in return extended rights upon the west coast as far as Cape Ray. Neither treaty purported to grant exclusive right, but there was annexed to the treaty of Versailles a declaration to the effect that “His Britannic Majesty will take the most positive measures for preventing his subjects from interrupting in any manner by their competition the fishery of the French during the temporary exercise of it which is granted to them upon the coasts of the island of Newfoundland, and he will for this purpose cause the fixed settlements which shall be formed there to be removed.” Upon this declaration the French founded a claim to exclusive fishing rights within the limits named. A convention was entered into with a View to defining these rights in 1854, but it remained inoperative, the consent of the Newfoundland legislature, to which it was made subject, having been refused. Meanwhile the French government granted a bounty to the French fishermen which enabled them to undersell the colonists.
In 1884 a convention which had been arranged between the British and French governments was submitted to the colonial administration by its promoters Sir Clare Ford and Mr E. B. Pennell, C.M.G., but without commanding the support of the Newfoundland government. In the year following, on a change of ministry in the colony, the Ford-Pennell Bait Act. convention was again offered to the Newfoundland legislature in a slightly amended form, but the joint committee of the colonial house of assembly and the council absolutely refused to ratify the arrangement unless the French government would consent either to annul or to amend the system of bounties paid upon French-caught fish in Newfoundland waters. At the same time, to counteract the effect of these bounties, which pressed very hardly upon the British competition, a Bait Act was framed and carried in 1886, empowering the executive to prohibit the capture in Newfoundland waters for exportation or sale of bait fishes, except under special licence to be issued by the colonial government. The consequence of this measure, were its provisions properly enforced, would be to place an embargo upon the local supply of bait requisite to the French fishermen—the so-called “metropolitan fleet”—on the Grand Banks. Upon being apprised of this enactment, the French government immediately demanded that Great Britain should deny its sanction to this Newfoundland Bait Act, and pressed their objections with such persistence as to induce Lord Salisbury
