OUR SEA FISHERIES. 185 



caught upwards of 23,000 quintals of fish, worth 12s. 

 per quintal, which they exported to Spain and the 

 Mediterranean, and remitted the proceeds in payment 

 for English manufactures. In 17-15, the annual value 

 of the North American fisheries was stated to be 

 982,000?., or close upon a million a year ; and this, of 

 course, represents a far larger value in the present 

 time than it did a hundred years ago. In 1787, the 

 number of British vessels engaged was 402, em- 

 ploying 16,856 men, while, besides large quantities 

 of fish, there were nearly 2,100 tons of oil exported. 

 In 1814, the exports of fish and oil amounted to 

 nearly 3,000,000/. The advantage to this country, 

 nationally, may be summed up in the words of 

 De Witt : " That the English navy became formidable 

 by the discovery of the inexpressibly rich fishery- 

 ground of Newfoundland/' 



Now let us see what our paternal Government 

 has been doing with this most valuable possession — 

 3,000,000/. a year, and the men for a fleet. The richest 

 gold-mines in our possession cannot equal this, for 

 they are exhaustible : properly worked, Newfound- 

 land is inexhaustible. In 1857, a treaty was con- 

 cluded between our Government and France, in which 

 the British Government literally handed over the 

 most valuable part of the Newfoundland fisheries to 



