14 



Plis lordship was committed to the Tower, and tried for high treason; 

 but such has been the advance of civiHzation and oi the doctrine of 

 human brotherhood, that an act which was a flagrant crime in his own 

 age has become one honorable to his memory. The great principle he 

 thus maintained in disgrace, that the seas of British America are not 

 lo be held by British subjects as a monopoly, and to the exclusion ol 

 all other people, has never since been wholly disregarded by any 

 British minister, and we may hope will ever now appear in British 

 diplomacy to mark the progress of hberal principles and of "man's 

 humanity to man." 



The loss of Nova Scotia caused but a temporary interruption of the 

 French fisheries. Within a year of the ratification of the treaty ot 

 Utrecht, fugitive fishermen of that colony and of Newfoundland settled 

 on Cape Breton and resumed their business. I have remarked that, 

 as the English understood the cession of Acadia, "according to its* 

 ancient boundaries," this island was held to be a part of it. The 

 French contended, on the other hand, that Acadia was a continental 

 possession, and did not embrace, of course, an island sufficient of itseli^ 

 to form a colony. The settlement and fortification of Cape Breton was- 

 therefore undertaken immediately, as a government measure. Never ■■ 

 has there been a better illustration of the facile character of the French 

 people than is afforded by the case before us. Wasting no energies in 

 useless regrets, but adapting themselves to the circumstances of their 

 position, they recovered trom their losses with ease and rapidity. In 

 1721 their fleet of fishing-vessels was larger than at any former period, 

 and is said to have been quite four hundred. 



Reference to the map will show that Cape Breton and Nova Scotia 

 are divided by a narrow strait. The meeting of vessels of the two flags 

 was unavoidable. The revival of old grudges, collisions, and quarrels, 

 was certain ; but no serious difficulties appear to have occurred pre- 

 vious to 1734. 



In 1744, England and France were still again involved in war. 

 Among the earliest hostile deeds were the surprise of the English gar- 

 rison at Canseau, Nova Scotia, and the destruction of the buildings, the 

 fort, and the fishery there, by a force from Cape Breton, and the cap- 

 ture at Newfoundland of a French ship, laden with one hundred and 

 fifty tons of dried codfish, by a privateer belonging to Boston. These, 

 however, are incidents of no moment, and may be disposed of in a word. 



The French fisheries had continued prosperous. They excited envy 

 and alarm. Accounts which are considered authentic, but which I am 

 compelled to regard as somewhat exaggerated, show that they employed 

 nearly six hundred vessels and upwards of twenty-seven thousand men; 

 and that the annual produce was almost a million and a half quintals 

 offish, of the value of more than four and a half millions of dollars.. 

 More than all else, the fishery at Cape Breton was held to be in viola- 

 lion of the treaty of Utrecht; for, as has been said, that island was in 

 the never-yet-defined country, Acadia. 



Robert Auchmuty,* an eminent lawyer of Boston, and judge of the 



*Robert Auchmuty was of Scottish descent, but was educated at Dublin. He came to Bos- 

 ton when young, and was appointed judgo of the court of admiralty in 1703. In 1740, he was 

 a director of the "Laud Bank," or bubble, which involved the father of Samuel Adams and. 



