ABGUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM ROBSON. 1731 



DR. DE SAVORNIN LOHMAN : But, Sir William, you admit, I believe, 

 that it is allowed for foreigners to be part of the shiping crews? 



SIR W. ROBSON: In 1818? 

 1047 DR. DE SAVORNIN LOHMAN: Yes. 



SIR W. ROBSON : I am not aware 



DR. DE SAVORNIN LOHMAN : I mean the seamen ; not the fishermen. 



SIR W. ROBSON : I think not, Sir. I am going a little out of my 

 order, but it is in the course of my remarks to show that we were 

 most jealous against allowing either our fishermen to leave or for- 

 eigners to come most jealous. Perhaps I had better go into that 

 a little more fully. If the Tribunal will allow me, I think I had 

 better go through some of those general instructions first, because 

 they make it a little easier, later, to deal with the argument. I will 

 just finish these two questions first. 



We had this ground as a training ground for our seamen. It had, 

 of course, various other uses. It was useful as a great food supply. 

 It was useful as a source of employment for our citizens ; but the use 

 upon which most stress was laid by the statesmen of the day was the 

 use of this place as a nursery for our seamen; and the legislation 

 shows that clearly. It shows that we were so anxious to train our 

 seamen there that we gave them special privileges, and it shows that 

 we did not allow them to desert. It was one of the causes of the 

 unfortunate war of 1812 that some of our seamen got, as we said, 

 on American vessels; so we claimed the right of search and impress- 

 ment, and got them off. Now, is it likely that we should have 

 allowed other nations that nursery for their purposes? It is said 

 continually that we allowed crews of foreigners to be used. All I 

 can say is that I do not know the evidence of it, and it is entirely 

 against all the presumptions, absolutely against all the presumptions. 

 Would we be likely, when we were fighting for these fishing places 

 as a nursery for our fleet, to allow unrestricted entry of other coun- 

 tries, to train their seamen there, by enlistment under colonial flag? 

 We would never do it. You may show cases of foreigners getting 

 on board these boats; de minimis non curat lex. Nobody would 

 trouble to turn them off, or trouble about them, because it was not 

 a widespread evil. But when the contention is put forward that 

 these Newfoundland fisheries might be used as a matter of right, or 

 upon any extensive scale, by Frenchmen, for instance that is to say, 

 within our own waters or by Spaniards, with whom we were con- 

 tinually engaged in war, I cannot imagine England allowing it for 

 a moment. 



What was our great struggle through all those years, before 1818 

 and up to 1818 ? To get sailors. We had the " press-gang " going 

 around every maritime town in England the " press-gang " which, 

 under pretence of enlistment (I believe it was supposed to be a vol- 



