49 
ain parts of our r coasts, are utterly without foundation or 
prof reason ; 
“And whereas the exercise of such claims involves, in its 
ons sequences, not only directly the deprivation of our people of 
g al aluable maritime industry, but also indirectly the settlement 
a new French population with a permanent footing upon our 
il, the locking-up of the territorial resources of the colony, 
{ ne » extinction of every valuable industry and source of wealth 
o our people, and the virtual transfer of the sovereignty of the 
oi oil to a foreign power ; 
“And whereas the terms of the so-called modus vivendi not 
ly accord to these unfounded pretensions the force and status 
f bona Jide and reasonable claims, but confer upon the French 
me immediate actual possession and enjoyment of rights, 
rritorial and maritime, to which these claims relate ; 
« And whereas these concessions, fraught as they are with 
gers and consequences to our most sacred rights and most 
jital interests, so stupendous and far-reaching, are entirely 
neompatible with the proper and effective maintenance of that 
osi tion which unquestionably belongs of right to this colony 
ind its people ; 
“ And whereas the terms of the present arrangement clearly 
nt to some contemplated settlement of disputes with the 
French, and in which their claims not only to further fishing 
privileges on our coasts, but to the permanent occupation and 
sovereignty of the soil, will be or may be conceded : 
_ © Be it therefore Resolved,—That for these further reasons, this 
sting indignantly protests against the making of this 
ngement ; that the claims now set up by the French in 
re lation to the lobster fishery ought to have been met only by an 
solute and unqualified denial; and that to no arrangement, 
sither for arbitration or otherwise, involving even the considera- 
tion of any possible right or claim on the part of the French to 
tch and preserve lobsters on our coast, to erect factories on 
‘our soil, or to hinder or interfere with our people in the 
secution of that industry, will we ever give our consent.” 
GROUNDS OF OBJECTION. 
e objections to the modus vivendi popularly expressed in 
4 
