BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 247 



upon the Labrador Fishery, which was not then pointed out, is a 

 consideration also of the first importance. During the last year no 

 fewer than 127 vessels were added to the trade of this colony; and of 

 these about 70 were of the larger class employed in the Seal Fishery, 

 in which there are now employed, in all, from this Island, about 400 

 sail, which, (the greater number of them at least) afterwards during 

 the season find employment in the fisheries at Labrador. While, 

 therefore, the damage to the fishery on the Labrador, by the cession 

 of Belle Isle, would be a just ground of complaint by the inhabitants 

 of the United States, and of the other North American Colonies, it 

 would be specially felt by the inhabitants of Newfoundland ; and the 

 renunciation by the French, in return, of their right of fishery between 

 Cape Ray and Bonne Bay, would be very far short of an equivalent. 



15. I may further observe, that the Fishery and Trade carried on 

 by British Settler at St. George's Bay the Fishery being chiefly in 

 Herrings caught in the months of April and May, and the Trade being 

 carried on almost entirely with Nova Scotia and the other Provinces, 

 are of but little value to the general commerce of the rest of this 

 Island, which is now, as I have shown, so dependent on the Labrador 

 fisheries. 



16. I must next advert to the proposition of Sir A. Perrier, that 

 che French shall be permitted to purchase Bait from the British Fish- 

 ermen ; by which of course is meant that they may purchase it with- 

 out restriction. The injury to pur Trade and Fisheries of this Traffic 

 have been so often and so forcibly pointed out in the Petitions from 

 this Colony, and in the Reports ol Naval Officers on the Station, that 

 it is needless to repeat them. In any new convention that may be made, 

 it should be a sine qua non, if the Sale of Bait is made a stipulation, 

 that the right of purchase must be subject to such regulations as 

 may be made by the Local Legislature for the protection of the breeding 

 and the preservation of the bait ; regulations that are now imperatively 

 demanded, and without which the Bait in our Southern Bays will in 

 time be exterminated. As regards the effect upon this part of the 

 question of embracing Newfoundland in any Treaty of Reciprocity 

 between the North American Colonies and the United States, by 

 which the Americans may be admitted to a participation in our fish- 

 eries, it should, as I have no doubt it will, be provided that the citi- 

 zens of the United States shall, equally with British subjects, be sub- 

 ject to such Legislative Regulations as may be established for the 

 protection and preservation of Bait. Regulations of this nature 

 would, under such circumstances, be obviously matters of common in- 

 terest to all. On this subject, which in the present state of our fish- 

 eries, and in anticipation of any change of our Commercial system, 

 is one of great importance, I shall probably again take leave to ad- 

 dress Your Grace. 



17. The observations which I have now made, it will be seen, have 

 reference to the two points of Concession in Sir A. Perrier's draft 

 proposals which he recommends being offered to the French together 

 with the exclusive right of fishery on that part of the Coast between 

 Cape John and Bonne Bay, as an equivalent for their renunciation 

 of their right of fishery on the rest of the Coast between Bonne Bay 

 and Cape Ray. I have stated to Your Grace the extreme dissatisfac- 

 tion which would be caused in this Colony by any such exchange, 

 and from the best information I have been able to gather from 



