2340 NOBTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITEATION. 



fishery, carried on by the inhab- 

 itants there. Sir Josiah Child, 

 the leading authority of the day 

 in matters of trade and com- 

 merce, sounded the note of alarm, 

 anticipating that, if the resident 

 fishermen continued to increase, 

 they would, in the end, carry on 

 the whole fishery, and that the 

 nursery of British seamen would 

 be destroyed. The only remedy 

 he proposed was the annihilation 

 of the boat fishery. Never was a 

 more unjust expedient conceived. 

 The labours, the expenditures, 

 and sacrifices of a large 

 1412 number of eminent and ad- 

 venturous men, who had 

 devoted life and fortune to the 

 colonization of Newfoundland, 

 were thus to be counted as worth- 

 less and even injurious to the 

 realm. But the views of Child 

 were adopted by the Lords of 



* Trade and Plantations, who de- 



termined to break up and de- 

 populate the colony. Sir John 

 Berry was accordingly sent over, 

 with orders to drive out the fish- 

 ermen, and burn their dwellings. 

 The extent of his devastations un- 

 der this more than barbarous de- 

 cree may not be certainly known ; 

 but six years elapsed before the 

 mandate of destruction was re- 

 voked, and its abrogation was 

 accompanied with instructions to 

 allow of no further emigrations 

 from England to the doomed 

 island. Complaints were made 

 that emigration continued, and 

 various plans were suggested to 

 discourage and prevent it. Mean- 

 time, the relations between the 

 resident fishermen and the mas- 

 ters and crews of the ships sent 

 out by the English merchants 

 were hostile to an extent which, 

 at the present day, seems almost 

 incredible. Previous to the edict 

 just noticed the former had peti- 

 tioned the King for the establish- 

 ment of some form of govern- 



