[HOWLEY] THE LABRADOR BOUNDARY QUESTION 295 
is no river at this latter place, they adopted a straight line drawn due 
north and south, in other words a meridian, until it reached a point due 
eastwards of the head waters of St. John River namely to the 52nd 
degree of north latitude. Hence the northern boundary of Quebec 
Province in this place is the 52nd degree, or parallel, of latitude pro- 
duced east from the Head Waters of St. John River until it reaches the 
point A. due North of Blanc Sablon where it meets the line drawn from 
Blanc Sablon due North. If these words had been placed in the Royal 
Instructions (instead of being left to be understood and verified by a 
long and tedious study of the antecedent proclamations), it would have 
helped much to an understanding of the draft of Letters Patent of 
1876. 
Now to return to the proclamation of October 7th, 1763. It 
continues: “And to the end that the open and free fishing of our 
“subjects may be extended to, and carried on upon, the Coast of 
* Labrador, and the adjacent islands, we have thought fit... to put all 
“that coast from the River St. John to the Hudson’s Straights together 
“ with the Islands of Anticosti and the Magdalen and all smaller islands, 
“lying upon the said coast under the care and inspection of Our Gov- 
“ ernor of Newfoundland.” 
In the year 1774 (14 Geo. III.) all the territory granted to New- 
foundland in the foregoing proclamation, was taken from Newfoundland 
and granted for the first time to Quebee Province. The following are 
the words of the act. “All such territories, islands and countries, 
“which have since the 10th of February, 1763, been made part of the 
“Government of Newfoundland, shall be, and they are hereby, during 
“ His Majesty’s pleasure, annexed to, and made part and parcel of, the 
“ Province of Quebec as created and established by the said royal pro- 
“clamation of 7th October, 1763.” Subsequent to this act or Pro- 
clamation Newfoundland had no jurisdiction at all on Labrador, but 
that state of things did not last very long. 
In 1791 (31 Geo. III.), the Province of Quebec was divided into 
Upper and Lower Canada. The portion of Labrador which had belonged 
10 Quebec by the act just quoted (14 Geo. IIL., 1774) was given to the 
Pronvince of Lower Canada. This left us in Newfoundland “as we 
were” without any jurisdiction on Labrador, but, in 1809 (49 Geo. 
III.) another change was made. By the act passed in this year, all this 
territory was again re-annexed to Newfoundland, except the Magdalen 
Islands, which were given to Prince Edward Island. It will be well to 
quote fully the words of the act. 
