45 



ever entirely powerless. Though protected by their sovereign, public 

 sentiment compelled submission; and abandoning their own plans, 

 they continued to exist as a corporation, merely to make grants of lands 

 to other companies, and to individual members of their own number. 



James bequeathed the quarrel to his son. The ill-fated Charles had 

 hardly ascended the throne before the Commons passed a bill for the 

 maintenance and increase of shipping and navigation, and for the lib- 

 erty of fishing on the coasts of Newfoundland, Virginia, and New 

 England. This bill was lost in the House of Lords, but the spirit of 

 the Commons was not repressed. In a strong representation of griev- 

 ances, which they laid before Charles, they insisted that the restraint 

 of the subject in the matter of fishing, with all the necessary incidents, 

 was of national concern and required redress. 



This State paper, and their refusal to grant the King a subsidy, 

 caused the dissolution of Parliament. 



It is from this dissolution that we date the disagreements between 

 Charles and his people, which, in their termination, overturned a 

 dynasty and carried the monarch to the block. In truth, I am led to 

 conclude that the question of "free fishing" was the first in the series 

 of disputes relative to the prerogatives oi" the crown on the one side, 

 and the rights of the subject on tlie other. 



The political consequences of the discussions so briefly considered, 

 might well claim further attention; but leaving them here, the results 

 to the fisheries next demand our notice. These, for the moment, were 

 disastrous in the extreme, since I know of no other explanation to the 

 fact, that during the five years embraced in the struggle the number 

 of English fishing- vessels on the whole extent of our coast diminished 

 much more than one-half, or fi'om four hundred to one hundred and 

 fifty; while it is certain that in the alarm which prevailed, the mer- 

 chants who had purchased the island of Monhegan, and had provided 

 there ample accommodations for the prosecution of their adventures, 

 sold their property and retired from the business. 



Singular to remark, too, that on the immediate coast of New Eng- 

 gland — and for ships owned or entirely controlled by English merchants 

 — the right of " free fishing," so earnestly contended for, was of little real 

 value. Accounts of such ships terminate almost at the very moment 

 that the right was established, in the manner related.* In another 

 part of this report, we shall indeed find that single vessels continued 



* Governor Bradford, in a letter to the " Council of New England," dated at Plymouth, 

 June 15, 1627, complains that the English fishermen on the coast " began to leave fishing and 

 to fall wholly to trading, to the great detriment of" the settlers there, and the " state of 

 England." In the year following, complaint was made to the coimeil against Thomas Morton, 

 who " had been often admonished not to trade or truck with the Indians," and against " the 

 fishing ships, who made it too ordinaiy a practice" to do the same thing, and over whom the 

 people of Plyiuouth had no control. 



In a communication to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the same year, (1623,) it is said that 

 Englishmen, under " pretence of fishing," sold the natives all manner of anns ; that "from 

 the greedy covetousness of the fishennen, and their evil example, the like had began to grow 

 amongst some, who pretend themselves to be planters, though indeed they intend nothing less 

 but to take opportunity of the time, and provide themselves and begone, and leave others 

 to quench the fire which they have kindled," &c., »S:c. 



The evil seems to have been alanning, since it is further said, that unless the colonists were 

 protected against these misdeeds, they must " quit the countiy." The assistance of Gorges, 

 to bring Morton " to answer those whom it may concern," and " likewise that such fishermen 

 may be called to account," is earnestly entreated. 



