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Article 13. The French right of fishery upon the Great Bank of | 
Newfoundland, upon the coasts of the island of that name, and of the © 
adjacent islands in the gulph of St. Lawrence, shall be replaced upon — 
the footing in which it stood in 1792. 
Treaty of Paris—1815. 
Article 11. The 'T'reaty of Paris, of the 13th of May, 1814, and 
the final act of the congress of Vienna, of the 9th of June, 1815, 
are confirmed, and shall be maintained in all such enactments which — 
shall not have been modified by the articles of the present treaty. 
B. | | 
THE “MAGNA CHARTA” OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 
Despatch From Ricur Hon. Sxcrerary or Srarz, No. 10, 267H 
Marcu, 1857, to Governor DarwLInG, ANNOUNCING THE ABANDON- — 
MENT OF THE CONVENTION WITH THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT, © 
RELATIVE TO THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES, &C., &C. 
[Copy. ] 
Downine STREET, 
26th March, 1857. 
Srr,—When her Majesty’s Government entered into the Con- 
vention with that of France, they did so in the hope of bringing to a 
satisfactory arrangement the many complicated and difficult questions 
which have arisen between the two countries on the subject of the 
Newfoundland fisheries. But they did so with the full intention of 
adhering to two principles which have guided them, and will continue — 
to guide them; namely, that the rights at present enjoyed by the — 
community of Newfoundland are not to be ceded or exchanged without 
their assent; and that the constitutional mode of submitting measures — 
for that assent is by laying them before the Colonial Legislature. 
For this reason they pursued the same form of proceeding which 
had been before pursued in the case.of the Reciprocity Convention with 
the United States, and which was in that case adopted and acted upon - 
by the Newfoundland Legislature. It was in perfect uniformity with _ 
the same precedent that it appeared necessary in the present instance — 
to add a condition respecting Parliamentary enactment, in order that, if — 
