6 CASE OF GKEAT BRITAIN. 



include the north coast of the peninsula was settled by the later treaty 

 of 1763, France giving up all claim. By this later treaty, too. Cape 

 Breton Island passed from France to Great Britain. At the date of 

 the 1783 treaty, therefore, Great Britain was possessed of the whole 

 of Nova Scotia (including New Brunswick and Cape Breton) and all 

 of its coast fisheries. (App., p. 7.) 



Prince Edward Island. By the treaty of 1763, this island (then 

 called St. John's Island) was ceded by France to Great Britain. At 

 first, part of Nova Scotia, it was afterwards, in 1768, made a separate 

 province. (App., p. 8.) 



Quebec. Prior to 1763. France was possessed of much of that 

 which now constitutes the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec in 

 Canada; but ownership of the territory lying between the thirteen 

 British colonies on the Atlantic coast and the River Mississippi was 

 in dispute between Great Britain and France. 



By the treaty of 1763, France ceded to Great Britain " Canada with 

 all its dependencies," including all the territory in dispute to the east 

 of the Mississippi. In the same year, part of the ceded territory was 

 constituted a province under the name of the Province of Quebec. In 

 1774, there was a re-arrangement, and all the territory now known as 

 the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec (in Canada) and as the States 

 of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and the eastern 

 part of Minnesota (in the United States), together with all the great 

 lakes (except the southern half of Lake Ontario), were united as the 

 Province of Quebec. 



Labrador and the Magdalen Islands formed part of the Province 

 of Quebec in 1783. A portion of Labrador was annexed to New- 

 foundland prior to the treaty of 1818. (App., p. 8.) 



POSITION BEFORE 1783. 



Fisheries. There were, and are, two sorts of fisheries: (1) 

 6 the bank fisheries of the ocean; and (2) the coast fisheries 



within the territorial waters of the respective colonies. 

 In respect of the bank fisheries (lying more than 35 miles from the 

 shore), Great Britain at one time asserted an exclusive right. By 

 the treaty of 1763, Spain had relinquished the pretensions of the 

 Guipuscoans, and other Spanish subjects to fish there; and France 

 had agreed not to (App., p. 10) 



exercise the said fishery but at the distance of 3 leagues from all the 

 coasts belonging to Great Britain, as well those of the continent as 

 those of the islands situated in the said Gulf of St. Lawrence. And 

 as to what relates to the fishery on the coasts of the Island of Cape 

 Breton out of the said gulf, the subjects of the Most Christian King 

 shall not be permitted to exercise the said fishery but at the distance 

 of 15 leagues from the coasts of the Island of Cape Breton. (App., 

 p. 8.) 



