64 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



gage iu war against England, but in the proposed negotiations the fish- 

 eries on the banks of Newfoundland and the various gulfs and bays 

 of North America were to be understood as not open to a question of 

 division. Spain, too, was applied to. "The Colonies," says Bancroft, 

 " were willing to assure to Spain freedom from molestation in its terri- 

 tories; they renounced in favor of France all eventual conquests iu the 

 West Indies ; but they claimed the sole right of acquiring British Con- 

 tinental America and all adjacent islands, including the Bermudas, 

 Cape Breton, and Newfoundland. It was America and not France 

 which first applied the maxim of monopoly to the fisheries. The King 

 of France might retain his exclusive rights on the banks of New Found- 

 land, as recognized by England iu the treaty of 1763, but his subjects 

 were not to fish 'in the havens, bays, creeks, roads, coasts, or places,' 

 which the United States were to win."* 



In the mean time how was England affected by her American policy? 

 The colonial fishery being abolished, it became essential that something 

 should be done to replace it, " and particularly to guard against the 

 ruinous consequences of the foreign markets, either changing the course 

 of consumption or falling into the hands of strangers, and those i)er- 

 haps inimical to this country. The consumption of fish-oil as a substi- 

 tute for tallow was now become so extensive as to render that also an 

 object of great national concern ; the city of London alone expending 

 about £300,000 annually in that commodity." t The evidence taken on 

 behalf of the ministry in support of their restraining-bill, tending to 

 show that there already existed sufficient capital in ships, men, and 

 money for the immediate and safe transfer of the whale fishery to En- 

 gland, while well enough for partisan purposes, was not considered so 

 reliable by the parties bringing it forward, and the government was not 

 at all desirous or willing to risk a matter of such extreme importance 

 upon the testimony there given. 



Measures were accordingly taken to give encouragement to this pur- 

 suit to the fishermen and capitalists of Great Britain and Ireland. | The 

 committee having the subject in charge were of the opinion that a 

 bounty should extend to the fisheries to the southward of Greenland 



above Obli^atioa to be Void & of none Effect otheiTvays to stand and remain iu full 



force & virtue. 



"NAT^i-MACY, 



" RICHD MITCHELL, Jr." 



" Signed, Sealed, & did in presence of us." 



C. 

 (Mass. Col. MSS. Misc., iii, p. G4.) 



The colonial papers of March 28, 1776, mention that the English frigate Renown, on 

 her passage to America, took ten sail of American whalemen, which were sent to Eng- 

 land to avoid the danger of recapture. 



* Bancroft's U. S., ix, p. i:5'2. 



t Eng. Annual Reg. 1775, p. 113. 



t Speech of the Earl of Harcout to the Irish Parliament, October 10, 1775. 



