55 



Besides, at the period of commercial disasters at Newfoundland, the 

 French and Americans had not recovered from the effects of war, and 

 had not, to a very alarming extent, resumed their adventures upon the 

 coasts or "the b;mks" of that island. 



The competition between the colonists and the people just men- 

 tioned increased ; but the Enghsh fishery gradually revived. The an- 

 nual catch is now nearly a million of quintals. There have been sea- 

 sons of fluctuations since the years referred to : depression is an inci- 

 dent in every human employment. Maritime pursuits are more uncer- 

 tain than those of the soil or those of the work-shop. Of the fisheries, 

 particularly, it is entirely true to say that they never have afforded, and 

 never will afford, constant and continuous rewards ; for, aside from the 

 losses consequent upon overstocked and glutted markets, the most un- 

 wearied industry and the highest degree of skill are often insufficient 

 to insure good fares. Our colonial neighbors should take these matters 

 into the account, and while lamenting their calamities, remember that 

 the American fishermen, whose condition they consider so much pref- 

 erable to their own, are subject to the same reverses, and would gladly 

 surrender many of the privileges they are supposed to enjoy, for the 

 liberty of living neai- to, and of freely using, the inner or shore fishing- 

 grounds, of which they are now deprived, and which are reserved ex- 

 clusively for British subjects. 



As a branch of industry, we need pursue our inquiries relative to the 

 Newfoundland cod-fishery no further. The table of statistics, compiled 

 from the best sources of information open to me, and which I think is 

 substantially accurate, may be referred to as affording a general view 

 of the subject for the last thirty years. The exports are to Portugal, 

 Italy, Spain, Brazil, the British West Indies, the British continental 

 possessions in America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. In 

 some of these markets the merchants of Newfoundland have no com- 

 petitors. As much as they complain of us and of our policy, our ports 

 are open to the importation of their staple commodity, on terms which 

 are producing alarming changes in the property and prospects of those 

 of our countrymen whose position on the coast of New England, and 

 whose habits and general circumstances, leave them no choice of em- 

 ployments. 



Newfoundland is connected with some of the most interesting events 

 to be found in our annals. Cabot saw it before Columbus set foot on 

 the American continent. There came the first men of the Saxon race, 

 under the first English charter, to found an English colon}'-. Visiters 

 to, or residents upon its shores, were the noble Gilbert, and Raleigh, 

 the father of colonization in this hemisphere; Mason and Calvert, the 

 founders of two of the United States. Among those who lent aid and 

 countenance to the enterprises to people it, in early time, were persons 

 of rank and wealth — and Bacon, of world-wide fame. In its waters 

 were the first trials by jury in America. The fi-eedom of its fisheries 

 was asserted by Coke, and other champions of Enghsh hberty, intones 

 to rouse the popular mind, and to put an end to chartered monopolists. 



In some respects Newfoundland is " a great English ship moored 

 near the Barfks," even in the second half of the nineteenth century. 

 Twenty years have not elapsed since the system, which was hardly a 



