THE NORTHEAST COAST FISHERIES 463 



and unjust regulations, under the plea that the fisheries must 

 be preserved to England, both as a means of profit and as a 

 nursery for her seamen, covered a period of more than a hun- 

 dred years. The building of houses and cultivation of the 

 soil were prohibited within six miles of the shore, and numer- 

 ous other barriers to prospective colonization gave great 

 annoyance to existing settlers. In fact, the London Board 

 of Trade, in whose hands the regulation of the English 

 fisheries had been placed, pursued its radical policy so far as 

 to send Sir John Berry to Newfoundland in 1670 with orders 

 to burn and destroy all dwellings, and drive the wretched 

 owners from the island. Under such adverse conditions, 

 British colonization in Newfoundland dwindled into insig- 

 nificance in the presence of a protected interest of pre- 

 dominant importance. At that dark period of her history, 

 Newfoundland was generally regarded beyond the Atlantic 

 as " a great English ship moored near the Banks during the 

 fishing season for the convenience of English fishermen." 



The era of oppression upon the Newfoundland settlers 

 reached its culmination in the passing of the statute, 10 and 

 11 William and Mary (1698), entitled : "An act to encourage 

 the trade of Newfoundland," which was, in reality, an act to 

 discourage immigration and to foster the interests of fisher- 

 men alone. By one of the provisions of this statute, referred 

 to as " infamous " in the annals of Newfoundland, a judicial 

 system was established for the colony, to be administered by 

 the "fishing admiral." This system abolished the plan of 

 dispensing justice, already in vogue in the colony, and created 

 in its stead a form of impromptu courts, held by the captains 

 of the English fishing vessels whenever they happened in 

 port. The captain arriving first in a harbor was constituted 

 "Admiral of the Port," the second, " Vice-Admiral," etc., 

 in whom was vested the exercise of all judicial functions. 

 The rule of these generally ignorant, and too often vicious, 

 men soon brought all semblance of law and order into con- 

 tempt, and resulted in conditions bordering on anarchy. 

 This statute remained in force many years, and did much to 

 retard the growth of the colony. Indeed, it may reasonably 



