49 



and required the mnnning of ships, at his own expense, to protect his 

 private interests, and the defenceless English fishermen on the coast. 

 ReHnquishing, finally, his plantation at Newfoundland, he turned his 

 thoughts to more hospitable regions, and, as Lord Baltimore, became the 

 father of Maryland. 



Of all who sought our shores to acquire power and princely estates, 

 to escape persecution, or to give a home and shelter to the v/eary and 

 -Stricken, not one — wiiether Puritan, Episcopalian, or Quaker — was ac- 

 tuated by a spirit more hberal, or has left a better name, than George 

 Calvert,' the Catbolic* 



Remarking that Winthrop records in his journal (1G47) the cccurrence 

 of a huiricane at Newfoundland, which wrecked many ships and boats, 

 and destroyed quantities offish, we come to the time of Charles the Sec- 

 ond. That monarch, after the restoration. In 1660, issued a long proc- 

 lamation fov the strict observance of Lent, assigning, as one reason there- 

 for, "the good it produces in the employment of fishermen." Still fur- 

 ther to encourage tliis branch of industry, Parliament passed on act the 

 same year remitting the dut}^ on salt used in curing fish, and exempting 

 the materials required in the fisheries from customs and excise. Three 

 years later, the New^foundland fishery was specially protected by an 

 entire exemption from levies and duties; and the home and colonial 

 fisheries were at the same time assisted b}^ duties imposed on products 

 of the sea, imported bj"" foreigners or aliens. 



Yet, the number of ships employed at Newfoundland declined annu- 

 ally. In 1670, the merchants sent out barely eighty. The decline 

 was attributed to the boat fishery, carried on by the inhabitants there. 

 Sir Josiah Child,t the leading authority of the da^'- in matters of trade 

 and commerce, sounded the note of alarm, anticipating that, if the resi- 

 dent fishermen contined to increase, they would, in the end, carry on 

 the whole fishery, and that the nursery of British seamen would be 

 desti'oyed. The only remedy he proposed was the annihilation of the 

 boat fishery. Never was a more unjust expedient conceived. The 

 labors, the expenditures, and sacrifices, of a large number of eminent 

 and adventuious men, who had devoted life and fortune to ihe coloni- 

 zation of Newfoundland, were thus to be counted as worthless, and 

 even injurious to the realm. But the views of Child were adopted by 

 the Lords of Trade and Plantations,!: who determined to break up- 



* George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, and foinider of Maiyland, was bom i;i England ia 

 1582. He was appointed one of the principal secretaries of state in 1619; auv. vliile holding 

 office he acquired the southeastern peninsula of Newfouudl.md, which he eicctcu iul.o a prov- 

 ince called Avalon. In l(j24 he became a Catholic Alter his abandoument of Newfoundland 

 he made a visit to Virginia, but the colonists disliked Ids reiigiou, and ho relmquisheil his inten- 

 tion to settle among them. On his return to Englaud, Charles the First gave him a patent of 

 the country now Maryland. Lord Baltimore died in London in 1632, before his patent had 

 passed the necessary fonns ; and a new one was issued to his son Cecil, who succeeded to his 

 honors. 



t Sir Josiah Child was a merchjint. It is said that he acquired great wealth in the "manage- 

 ment" of the East India Company's stock. When liis daughter married the eldest son of the 

 Duke of Beaufort, he gave her a portion of £5'l),000. Sir Josiah had fish-ponds in Eppmg, 

 forest, "many mile.s in circuit." 



t The Board of Trade and Plantations was of no service to the American colonies, though 

 created for the special purpose of attending to their interests. Mr. Burke, in a speech in the 

 House of Commoas, in 1780, thus spoke of it : " This board is a sort of temperate bed of 

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