THE THIRD ANGLO-FRENCH DUEL 135 



The Treaty of Utrecht, as amended by the Treaties of This 

 Paris and Versailles and by the Declaration of Versailles, 

 regulated the reciprocal rights of England and France down French 

 to 1904 ; and diplomatic history as between Newfoundland jy^y 

 and France came to an end in 1/83, for subsequent wars rights, 

 only took away, what treaties subsequent to the wars restored 

 to France. Newfoundland was swathed in treaties, and the 

 last of its Anglo-French swaddling clothes were donned in 

 lt l%3> which was the year in which the first of its Anglo- 

 American entanglements began. 



The Treaty of 1783 conferred on inhabitants of the and can- 

 United States rights, which the Anglo-American war (1812 ^ rr *^^ 5 " 

 14) abrogated, and the Anglo-American Convention (i 8 1 8) for the 



renewed and enumerated as : (i) a concurrent right ' to take fi r3t f im& 



on the 



fish of every kind ' (a) on the south ' coast ' between Cape Ray United 



and the Ramea Islands, (l>) on the west ' coast ' between Cape ^ tat , e f m 

 ' \ / r ambiguous 



Ray and Quirpon Island, (c) on the ' shores ' of the Magdalen language. 

 Islands, (</) on the ' coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks ' of 

 Labrador from Mount Joli, through Belle Isle Strait, north- 

 ward ' indefinitely along the coast ', subject to the Hudson 

 Bay Company's rights; and (2) a right to dry and cure fish 

 ' in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks ' (a) of 

 the said south coasts, and (b] of the coast of Labrador. The 

 Convention added that after settlement the settlers might 

 allow ' drying and curing ', but did not expressly confer any 

 drying or curing rights in the Magdalens or on the. west 

 coast ; and the reader may wonder at, but no one has yet 

 solved the subtle distinction between ' shores ' and ' coasts ', 

 and ' coasts ' plus or minus ' bays, harbours, and creeks ', and 

 ' bays, harbours, and creeks ' plus or minus ' coasts '. Besides, 

 are whales, walruses and lobsters fish? Are cod really 

 caught on the shore ? Are the United States, is Newfound- 

 land, or are the fish to decide, when and how the fish are or 

 are not to be caught? And does not the Treaty say that in 

 some places what may be killed may not be cured, and what 



