22 COUNTER CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



vailed. By the constitutions granted to all the other colonies, a 

 clearly defined system of jurisdiction was laid down ; but the admin- 

 istration of Newfoundland was, in a great measure, an exclusively 

 mercantile or trading 'government; which, as Adam Smith very 

 justly observes, " is perhaps the very worst of all governments for 

 any country whatever;" and a powerless planter, or fisherman, never 

 expected, or seldom received, justice from the adventurers, or the 

 fishing admirals, who were their servants. Mr. Reeves, in his History 

 of Newfoundland, states, " that they had been in the habit of seeing 

 that species of wickedness and anarchy ever since Newfoundland was 

 frequented, from father to son; it was favourable to their old im- 

 pressions, that Newfoundland was theirs, and that all the planta- 

 tions were to be spoiled and devoured at their pleasure." 



There is no doubt but that so arbitrary an assumption and practice 

 of misrule produced the consequences that severity always generates ; 

 and that the planters soon reconciled themselves to the principles of 

 deceit and falsehood, or to the schemes that would most effectually 

 enable them to elude their engagements with the adventurers. The 

 resident fishermen, also, who were driven from time to time out of 

 Newfoundland, by the statute of William and Mary, generally turned 

 out the most hardened and depraved characters wherever they went. 

 ******* 



The whole of the west coast of Newfoundland, north of the bay 

 St. George, is unsettled, although some of the lands are the best on 

 the island. 



The absence of any fisheries laws or regulations on the Newfound- 

 land coast, even after the treaty of 1854 was entered into, is dis- 

 closed by the following extract from a letter, under date of Septem- 

 ber 29, 1855, written by His Excellency C. H. Darling, the Governor 

 of Newfoundland, to The Right Honorable Sir W. Molesworth, Sec- 

 retary of State for the Colonies, in which he says, referring to a 

 report enclosed 



You will perceive by this report, which is entirely accordant with 

 that of the late Attorney General, Mr. Archibald, dated July 5, 1853, 

 copy of which was transmitted by my predecessor's despatch, No. 46, 

 July 12th, 1853, that there are in fact no laws or regulations whatever 

 relating to the Fisheries, practically in force in this Colony. 6 



Joint regulations and policing under French treaties. 



During the entire period covered by the French treaties, neither 

 country was permitted to exercise any authority over the fishermen 

 of the other, except such as might be necessary to prevent the fisher- 

 men of either country from interfering with the fishing liberties 

 reserved by treaty to the fishermen of the other country, and the 



U. S. Counter-Case Appendix, p. 577. 

 *U. S. Counter-Case Appendix, p. 250. 



