200 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



navigation of the lakes: besides, we had given up to them by that 

 boundary, a tract of country four times as large as Britain, and in 

 that tract above six-and-twenty nations of our Indian allies, whose 

 hunting grounds were were obliged, by treaty, to protect, and from 

 whom (setting aside those feelings which dignify human nature) we 

 received most essential benefits in the article of their trade of peltry 

 and furs. The noble Viscount dwelt on this topic with great energy, 

 and declared himself astonished and confounded at the conduct of 

 Ministers in this respect. From this impolicy his Lordship turned 

 to Newfoundland, and there he complained of Ministers giving to the 

 French near seven degrees of latitude for their own exclusive fishing, 

 and at the same time that we did that, we also gave the Americans a 

 participation in all our fisheries, in all our creeks and harbours, and 

 never made any stipulation for our fishing reciprocally in theirs. The 

 granting of St. Pierre and Miquelon to the French was the next object 

 that met the reprehension of his Lordship. If they fortified these 

 two places, as they certainly might, if they pleased, his Lordship de- 

 clared our fisheries on that coast to be altogether unsafe, and of 

 course of little or no advantage to us. The noble Viscount referred 

 to the various treaties which had been made in respect to this fishery, 

 and showed what honourable pains the Earl of Chatham had always 

 taken to preserve this fruitful nursery of seamen to the British 

 Crown. By the provisions made respecting this fishery, there would 

 be an end at once put to the British trade. While he was Ambassador 

 at the Court of Versailles, they set up a title to the fishery ceded to 

 them by the peace of Utrecht, unshackled by reciprocity. He wrote 

 home for instructions, and received so clear, distinct, and at the same 

 time so peremptory a statement of the English right to fish in com- 

 mon with the French, on the west side of the island, that they were 

 satisfied, or at least they relinquished their claim for the time, and 

 wisely postponed it until a moment should come more favourable to 

 their ambition, when perhaps, there should be an English Minister, 

 so solicitous of power, so anxious to fix himself in his seat, as to hurry 

 a negociation to its end, without care or anxiety for the interest of 

 the State, which he was appointed to govern. He now considered 

 the fishery as irretrievably gone ; for there was not a syllable of reci- 

 procity in the treaty, and we yielded, in full right, the possessions of 

 St. Pierre and Miquelon, which they would instantly fortify, and se- 

 cure to themselves an immense trade. The concessions made to 

 America in this particular, were also very material. The unsettled 

 coasts and bays in Nova Scotia were to be opened to them, and we 

 were to have no power to fish in their bays in return. Eternal jeal- 

 ousies would arise, and instead of securing a peace, we had, in truth, 

 granted all this for the sake of involving the nation in a new war. 

 ******* 



Viscount Sackfille spoke in the most pointed terms of reproba- 

 tion of the peace; and declared it to be in every instance the most 

 unwise, impolitic, and ruinous treaty that this country had ever made. 

 In regard to the abandonment of the loyalists, it was a thing of so 

 atrocious a kind, that if it had not been already painted in all its horrid 

 colours, he should have attempted the ungracious task; but never 

 should have been able to describe the cruelty in language as strong 

 and expressive as were his feelings. The King's Ministers had 

 weakly imagined that the recommendation of the Congress was 



