25, 
question.” Customs officers were appointed to collect the. 
es; magistrates and police were appointed to administer. 
, under the express supervision and approval of the 
rial authorities; court houses were erected; grants from 
general revenues were made for roads and other public 
nprovements. Next, as a full measure of recognition of the 
7 of the colony to govern that portion of it in the fullest 
ense, representation was granted to it in the local Legislature. 
t ee ys as if specially to assert to the French that their 
aim ” to an exclusive right of possession was denied, authority 
Sictrin to the Governor and the local Government to issue 
ants of land, to put an end to the uncertainties and difficulties 
gg squatters’ ” title, and to give instead a good and valid title 
om the Crown, “ subject to French treaty rights.” This limita- 
n, under the construction of the treaties contended for by 
the British authorities, would virtually mean nothing, and there- 
re be no drawback to the title in places where the French had 
ver carried on a fishery or had ceased to do so; and this 
urance of a title from the Crown to land, and all rights of 
operty usually appurtenant thereto, was regarded as the 
wning act, completing the full measure of British freedom 
n d citizenship conferred sits that part of the colony and its 
- people. 
+S In relation to the change which had thus apparently taken 
1 in Imperial “policy” in relation to these questions, 
| —_ bition able living writer upon Newfoundland, the Rev. Moses 
_ Harvey, in a book published in 1883 spoke in the following 
hopeful strain :— 
Peis “England, while maintaining that her subjects have a right 
_ to fish concurrently with the French in these waters, has 
; always held this right in abeyance, and discouraged the 
'® exercise of it; and, until 1881, refused to recognise settlers on 
® that portion of the coast as subjects entitled to the protection 
+s a of law and representation in the local Legislature. Happily this 
© policy i is now reversed. Territorial jurisdiction over the whole 
i “island is conceded to the Government of Newfoundland ; the 
i Be power of making land grants and issuing mining licences is 
_ ‘“acecorded, and representation in the local Legislature is secured, 
“the French. fishery rights being, of course, strictly recognised, 
_ “ Tt now remains for diplomacy to close, in an equally satisfactory 
¥} 
