222 THE LABKADOE PENINSULA. chap. xxxv. 



and the consequent possession of Newfoundland by a 

 foreign power. 



A select committee of tlie House of Assembly of New- 

 foundland reported on February 26, 1857, and sub- 

 mitted resolutions strongly condemnatory of the con- 

 vention, as ruinous to British American interests. An 

 address to the Secretary for the Colonies Avas framed 

 and adopted, and all constitutional steps taken to arrest 

 the calamity with which this convention threatened them. 

 In the address of the Commons to Her Majesty's Pro- 

 vincial Secretary of State for the Colonies on this 

 subject, the following brief history and present state and 

 condition of the Newfoundland fisheries is given : — 



The Treaty of Utrecht gave the French a concurrent right 

 of fishery on the shores of Newfoundland, from Point Eoche 

 around the north-west coast to Cape Bonavista on the eastern 

 coast ; this right, restricted to Cape St. John, instead of Cape 

 Bonavista on the eastern coast, and extended to Cape Ray on 

 the west, was continued to them by the Treaty of Versailles, 

 with the additional advantage conferred by the declaration of 

 His Britannic Majesty, that means should be taken to prevent 

 injury to the French fishery by the exercise of their concurrent 

 right by British subjects. Proclamations from time to time 

 issued in Newfoundland in conformity with the declaration and 

 under the authority of the 28th Greo. III. cap. 15 ; and the 

 practice of the French, permitted by the British Government, of 

 forcibly preventing British subjects from fishing at the French 



British American pi'ovinces, especially in time of war, if this island, the 

 key of the St. Lawrence, with its numberless capacious harbours, fell into 

 the hands of a foreign power — a conjuncture which the operation of the 

 convention can hardly fail to bring about. 



I have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your most obedient servant, 



A. Shea, Speaker. 



