35 
, settlement was forbidden by law. The provisions of the 
in relation to the land were intended simply and only 
é Epereement for the temporary accommodation of the 
herm en of the two nations who resorted to Newfoundland 
g the summer season and left it in the fall. No grant or 
Bhent title, or right of occupation, even from one year to 
“ , was given to the British fishermen; the choice of site, 
cam for landing and curing the fish, or, as it is con- 
2 oy ped in Newfoundland up to to-day, carrying 
“the “voyage,” was allotted to the vessels in turn of 
i at each port—in short, the very notion of owner- 
or fixity of tenure was entirely discountenanced. In 
of these facts, and this explanation of the origin of 
é 1e treaties, it is at once obvious how utterly futile and im- 
icable it is to attempt to adapt the terms of such an 
I rangement to the ordinary conditions of a settled population. 
actically the present position of the case is this. The British 
t, claiming under the Crown, in which is the sovereignty 
f the colony and of the soil, has in the first place, and 
erally, the right to use and occupy, end does use and 
ceupy, the land, for all and every purpose. But this be 
ether possessed by the British subject as a “ squatter,” 
ler a grant from the Crown, is subject to French ae 
tights. These rights are—“to catch fish, and to dry them on 
‘land ;” but “it shall not be lawful for the subjects of France 
. . erect any buildings there, besides stages made of 
ds, and huts necessary and usual for drying of fish.” But 
| to whether or not there was to be any limit to the French- 
1a ’s. right to select the place that he wished to use,—whether 
2 was, on the one hand, to be confined to such places as were 
ally and_ bona fide necessary for him for the prosecution of his 
‘fishery, or whether, on the other, he has the right from one 
i r to another, or from week to week, or from day to day, 
9 wander over the whole “French shore,” and at his own 
alute and uncontrolled will to demand the right to use 
place that he may choose to select for the purposes of 
is_fishery,—upon this question the terms of the treaty are, 
r the reasons already given, indefinite, and over that ques- 
ion the battle has been going on ever since the treaties were 
