46 
of a right to catch lobsters, and to dispose of that right for z | 
term |of years. Nothing was said of the significant fact that 
the commander of a British war-ship, after hearing of this claim 
of new territorial and maritime rights by the French, had en- 
forced, their contention by his orders to Messrs. Murphy & 
Andrews. Despite all these facts, the unfortunate owners of 
the Hauling Point factory have not to this day received a single 
dollar as compensation for the loss caused to them by the orders 
of a British naval officer. 2 
From the foregoing it will be seen that in 1887 the Frene b 
only denied the right of British subjects to interrupt the French 
fishery by taking lobsters and erecting factories, but that in 1888 
they advanced a claim to an exclusive right on their own part to 
erect factories and take lobsters. On the other hand, it will be per- 
ceived that from 1882 to 1887 the French and British both acted 
upon the supposition that the factories carried on by British 
subjects were not a breach of French treaty rights; but that in 
1887 the French claimed, and British naval officers admitted, that 
the taking of lobsters so as to interrupt the French fish nd was: 
not perniissible, which was in itself an admission by both French, 
and British officers that the taking of lobsters so as not to in- 
terrupt the French fishery, and the erection and operation of 
factories, were not breaches of the treaties. But, in 1888, the 
French advanced the preposterous claim of a right to erect, 
factories and take lobsters, which claim a British officer virtually 
admitted, though in 1889 the British Government declared that 
they did not admit the legality of either of these claims. So the . 
dispute stood until the end of 1889, up to which time the British 
had erectied about forty factories upon the coasts on which the 
French have treaty rights, the French about four. 
THE “* MODUS VIVENDI” ANNOUNCED. 
The Legislature of Newfoundland assembled for the diepatell 
of business on the 6th day of March, 1890, and the Governor's ~ 
Speech, delivered on the 7th day of the same month, contained _ 
the following paragraph :— a 
“The Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies has 
“acquainted me that negotiations are in progress between 
“the Governments of Great Britain and France, for a settlemer 
