18 ; 
‘own territory. The interests of Newfoundland are most, 
tericas affected by its being kept open, and those of the 
“ Empire require that its right of sovereignty within its own 
** dominions should be maintained inviolate.” a 
If the language of these documents respectively—strong as it — 
is—was justifiable and appropriate at the time when it was | 
written, and in relation to the questions to which it applied, with 
how many times greater force and truth does it apply to the 
present condition of things, and to the new questions and new _ 
aspects of the old questions which now present themselves ! 
And this it will now be our immediate and special endeavour to 
demonstrate. 
WHEN THE TREATIES WERE MADE, 
It may briefly be stated that when the treaties between 
England and France under which the French derive their | 
rights on the coasts of Newfoundland were made, the whole 
condition of things, the subject-matter of the treaties, both as” 
regards the then present facts and the intention of the contracting | 
parties, were the entire reverse in every respect of that which | 
obtains at the present time. We have now, practically and virtually, 
nothing left of the facts, matters, or objects to which those 
documents related. They now stand, as it were, unconnected — 
with their original raison détre, and the want of knowledge, or | 
rather of appreciation, of this fundamental fact lies at the root 
of the difficulties which have attended all attempts at a reasonable | 
and satisfactory solution of the so-called “French shore” problem. 
During the whole period covered by the dates of these treaties, | 
from 1713 to 1815, Newfoundland was, in fact, nothing but a | 
station on the other side of the Atlantic, to which the fisher- 
men of England and France annually resorted for the fishing | i 
or summer season only. Although by the terms of the treaties — 
the “sovereignty” was declared to be in Great Britain, yet, in 
fact, colonisation or settlement was not only not existing or con- | 
templated, but was even prohibited by Great Britain under | 
severe penalties. The fishermen of the two nations met on the | 
Newfoundland fishing grounds, living on board their vessels, and | 
prosecuting their fishing in their boats, and occupying the land, 
or rather the beaches on the coast, only for the temporary pur- 
pose of curing and drying their fish. So carefully was the very 
