BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 253 



stipulations (which I have not thought it necessary to cite) respect- 

 ing the cutting of wood, etc., and the proclamations by which the 

 British Government sought from time to time to carry the treaties 

 into effect, the French enjoyed an exclusive fishery along the so- 

 called " French Shore ", and also the exclusive use of that Shore, for 

 fishing purposes, during their season, and they insisted on the legal 

 right to prevent the settlement of Her Majesty's subjects and the 

 erection of fixed establishments on any part of that shore. 



It would no doubt have been more satisfactory to Her Majesty's 

 Government, as well as to the inhabitants of Newfoundland, if the 

 French could have been induced to waive rights exclusive and likely 

 to be in some respects so inconvenient. But during the many years 

 over which these negociatioris have spread, no opportunity has offered 

 itself of attaining in this manner the desired object. The French 

 Government is not disposed to part with or compromise rights under 

 which a branch of industry, to which it attached considerable value, 

 has grown up.- -And, in the meantime, not only was great expense 

 entailed on both Governments, by the necessity of maintaining Naval 

 Forces to prevent mutual encroachments, but these encroachments 

 could not always be prevented, and the peaceful relations of the two 

 countries have been frequently in danger of interruption from dis- 

 putes which there was little hope of terminating by decision or- in- 

 tervention, since the very indefinite nature of the rights claimed or 

 enjoyed by France in British soil and waters rendered their constant 

 repetition almost inevitable. 



Under these circumstances, Her Majesty's Government had no 

 alternative except that of endeavoring by negociation to diminish 

 the chances of collision by defining the disputed points; and at the 

 same time to obtain from France such concessions as were most likely 

 to prove permanently serviceable to the interests of Newfoundland 

 at the price of such concessions on our side as were least likely to be 

 felt as onerous. 



The Concessions made by France in the Convention now forwarded 

 are as follows: 



The " exclusive " right of France to the Fishery is limited entirely 

 to the Northern extremity and North Eastern Coast of Newfoundland 

 from Cape Norman to Cape St. John, including the portion of the 

 " French Shore " at present chiefly used by the fishermen of that 

 nation, and to five reserved points on the Western Shore to which 

 the French attach a value on account of existing establishments and 

 rights there. 



The waters of the entire Western Coast with these exceptions, are 

 therefore left open to the free concurrence of British fishermen; a 

 Concession which it is hoped will be of increasing importance as 

 population and industry advance. 



Along the little tract of shore between Quirpon Islands and Cape 

 Norman shore, and also at the five reserved points, the French rights 

 of fishery are described as " to the exclusion " of " British subjects ". 

 This phrase requires explanation. It need scarcely be said Her Maj- 

 esty's Government could entertain no idea of ceding to any Foreign 

 Nation special rights to the exclusion of her own subjects in particu- 

 lar, even on points of such minute geographical importance as these. 

 No such consequences follow here. But the phraseology was rendered 

 unavoidable by the peculiar position in which this country was placed 



