276 MISCELLANEOUS 



Extracts from the Journal of the Legislative Assembly of Newfound- 

 land, 1876. 



Resolutions adopted at a meeting of the Executive Council of this Colony for 

 transmission to Her Majesty's Government upon the subject of French aggres- 

 sions and British rights on that part of the coast commonly termed the French 

 Shore. 



Resolved, That by the Treaty of Utrecht the exclusive sovereignty 

 of the whole territory of Newfoundland and the Islands adjacent 

 thereto were conveyed by His Majesty the King of France to His 

 Majesty the King of Great Britain and his heirs for ever in full right. 

 But His Majesty the King of Great Britain, by the same Treaty, con- 

 ceded to the subjects of His Most Christian Majesty the privilege of 

 a concurrent right of fishing on that part of the coast of Newfound- 

 land extending from Cape Bonavista to Point Rich, together with the 

 liberty to land their fish and dry them. The following is the language 

 used in the Treaty. " The Island called Newfoundland with the adja- 

 cent islands shall from this time forward belong of right wholly to 

 Great Britain." 



" Nor shall the Most Christian King, his heirs and successors, or 

 any of their subjects, at any time hereafter lay claim to the said 

 Island and Islands, or any part of it or them." 



That by the subsequent Treaties of Paris and Versailles and by 

 every succeeding Treaty, these rights were affirmed to His Majesty 

 the King of Great Britain and his heirs, with the following excep- 

 tions : That by the Treaties of Paris and Versailles His Ma jesty the 

 King of Great Britain ceded in full sovereignty to His Majesty the 

 King of France the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, subject to 

 given conditions, together with the privilege to his subjects of fishing 

 concurrently with those of His Britannic Majesty " on that part of 

 the coast of Newfoundland extending from Cape John passing to 

 the north and descending by the western coast of Newfoundland to 

 the place called Cape Ray, situate in forty-seven degrees fifty minutes 

 north latitude," in exchange for that portion of the coast extending 

 from Gape Bonavista to Cape John, which His Most Christian Maj- 

 esty assented to abandon. 



That on the introduction into this Colony of self-government by 

 virtue of its great charter granted by His late Majesty King William, 

 and affirmed by subsequent acts of the Imperial Government and of 

 the Legislature of this Colony, all the rights which Great Britain 

 possessed in Newfoundland became under stipulated conditions the 

 property of this Colony, and is now held in trust by its Government 

 for the benefit of the people. That such is the high appreciation in 

 which these Treaty rights are, and ever have been held by the inhabi- 

 tants of this Colony, that no minister in this country would dare to 

 compromise them in any manner. Not an inch of their soil, not an 

 atom of their concurrent rights in the fisheries, on the so-called 

 French Shore, would any permanent resident of sound mind in the 

 Colony consent to part with. 



That out of deference to the perplexities which circumstances have 

 imposed on the Imperial Government in their negociations for many 

 years past in regard to this subject, the aggrieved parties resident on 

 the so-called French Shore have borne with great forbearance the 

 studied audacious periodical robberies, and other grievances perpe- 



