BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 229 



Mr. Grewdy fo Sir John Pakingto*,. 



No. 3.] GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 



Newfoundland, 22nd September, 1852. 



SIR: 1. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your con- 

 fidential Despatch of the 17th August, transmitting certain docu- 

 ments having reference to negociations between France and Great 

 Britain, with a view to a new definition of the rights of the two na- 

 tions on the coast of Newfoundland, and requesting from me a report 

 on the whole subject, and my opinion as to what concessions, whether 

 those suggested by Sir A. Perrier, or what others, should be made 

 on either side, in order to close the existing sources of dispute. 



2. I have not failed to give my earnest attention to a subject, which 

 is of such vital importance to the interests of this colony, and to 

 seek the opinions of those most calculated to form a right judgment 

 thereon, and I proceed to lay before you the conclusions at which I 

 have arrived. 



3. I will commence by adverting to the assumption on the part of 

 the French Commissioner of the right to an exclusive fishery on 

 certain parts of the coast of this Island, founded I presume, on the 

 declaration of his late Majesty George the 3rd, appended to the 

 treaty of 1783, and which right, although exercised by them on a 

 part, and a part only, of what is generally termed the French Shore, 

 has never been admitted by us. 



4. The very terms of the Declaration in question whilst forbid- 

 ding the English fishermen to interrupt by their competition, or to 

 injure the Stages, etc., of the French, recognize their presence, and 

 the whole question would appear to be settled by the concession on 

 the part of our Government, to the citizens of the United States in 

 the treaty of 1818, of the same rights which had been conceded to 

 the French in that of 1783. 



5. Before proceeding to notice more particularly the propositions 

 made by the French and English Commissioners respectively, I 

 would observe that the settlements in St. George's Bay, and on other 

 parts of the French Shore, have grown up without protest or com- 

 plaint on the part of the French that they have hitherto been of no 

 service to this Colony, adding neither to our revenue or resources, and 

 that the concession to us of any part of this coast would not be of 

 sufficient value to warrant a compliance with any of the propositions 

 of the French Commissioner. In fact there is only one concession to 

 be made by the French Government which would prove of real ad- 

 vantage, and that is, the doing away with their bounties, but so far 

 from any disposition to this proceeding being manifested, the present 

 Government of France is reported to have so altered them as to make 

 them press with more injurious force than heretofore on the trade of 

 this Colony. 



6. I would respectfully repeat that, with this exception, France has 

 nothing of value to yield to us, and that the only prospect of our sus- 

 taining our trade in Foreign Markets against bounties equal in 

 amount to what would be considered a remunerative price for the 

 fish, is by such a vigilant and efficient protection of our existing 

 rights as will tend materially to reduce the quantity of fish caught by 



