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- Government as the essential preliminary to any modification of their 
«“ territorial or maritime rights ” : 
J Be it therefore Resolved,—That the commencement, continuation, 
and conclusion of the negotiations for the modus vivendi without the 
_ knowledge and consent of the community or Legislature are in direct 
k iolation of our constitutional rights, and of the particular engagement 
_ vith the people of Newfoundland which her Majesty’s Government 
if -yoluntarily made; against which violation we record our most earnest 
_ protest, and to which we as a free people will never consent. 
Ha ( Second Resolution. 
_ Whereas the claims put forward by the French (1) to catch and 
_ preserve lobsters, (2) to erect lobster factories, and (3) to exclude our 
people from the prosecution of that industry, on certain parts of our 
coasts, are utterly without foundation or show of reason ; 
2| And whereas the exercise of such claims involves, in its consequences, 
if not only directly the deprivation of our people of a valuable maritime 
" industry, but also indirectly the settlement of a new French population 
. . _ with a permanent footing upon our soil, the locking-up of the territorial 
"resources of the colony, the extinction of every valuable industry and 
source of wealth to our people, and the virtual transfer of the 
"sovereignty of the soil to a foreign power; 
a And whereas the terms of the so-called modus vivendi not only 
- accord to these unfounded pretensions the force and status of bona fide 
_ and reasonable claims, but confer upon the French the immediate 
actual possession and enjoyment of rights, territorial and maritime, to 
_ which these claims relate ; 
And whereas these concessions, fraught as they are with dangers and 
' consequences to our most sacred rights and most vital interests, so 
_ stupendous and far-reaching, are entirely incompatible with the proper 
and effective maintenance of that position which unquestionably 
Biclougs of right to this colony and its people ; 
And whereas the terms of the present arrangement clearly point 
_ 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 ; 
Therefore Resolved,—-That for these further reasons, this meeting 
indignantly protests against the making of this arrangement; that the 
_ claims now set up by the French in relation to the lobster fishery 
_ ought to have been met only by an absolute and unqualified denial; and 
_ that to no arrangement, either for arbitration or otherwise, involving 
even the consideration of any possible right or claim on the part of the 
