222 



jKxtracts from the Memorial of the Newfoundland Merchants to Admiral Keaff;, 

 8th Nov. 1813. 



*' Conceiving that our existence as a great and independent nation 

 must chiefly depend upon our preserving the sovereignty of the 

 seas, the pohcy of excluding France and America from the advan- 

 tages those nations have heretofore enjoyed in the limes of peace^ 

 in this fishery, must be evident to every man of observation en- 

 gaged in this branch of commerce. 



" By former treaties with France and the United States of Ame- 

 rica, these powers were allowed certain privileges on those shores, 

 banks, coast of Labrador, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the 

 opinion of your excellency's memorialists highly impolitic, and 

 which the wisdom of the British government never would concede 

 except under very peculiar circumstances. 



" Fifteen hundred American vessels have been known to be 

 prosecuting the fishery at one time on the Labrador coast, bringing 

 with them coffee, teas, spirits and other articles of contraband. 



" The intercourse of our fishermen with these secret enemies 

 of Britain, has an effect not less fatal to their moral character than 

 to our fishery. The small planters and catchers of fish which 

 make the great body of the people on the coast of Labrador under 

 the influence of notions imbibed by their daily intercourse with 

 men whose interests are at war with ours, become dissatisfied with 

 their supplying merchants who are unable to meet their foreign 

 competitors upon equal ground. The next step, as experience 

 shows, is the neglect of the only means in their power to discharge 

 their debts, disobedience and insubordination follow, and finally, 

 their minds become alienated from their own government, and the\ 

 emigrate to another, to the great loss of their country. 



*' In times of peace, besides, the citizens of the United States 

 resort, in great nnmbers, to the Banks, where they anchor in vio- 

 lation of express stipulations to the great annoyance of this valua- 

 ble branch of the Newfoundland trade. Nor is it possible that the 

 strictest vigilance is often able to detect them in the breach of such 

 btipuiations. 



*^ The evils growing out of impolitic concessions to insidious 

 friends, are more extensive than your excellency's memorialists 

 have yet stated ; they accompany our commerce into the markets, 

 of Europe and the West-Indies. 



'* In the United States, men, provisions, and every other article 

 of outfit are procured upon much better terms than the nature of 

 things will admit with the British. These combined advantages en- 

 able them to undersell the British merchant in the foreign market. 

 Hence heavy losses have often by him been sustained, and must 

 always be sustained under similar circumstances. 



*' The increased advantages since the commencement of hosti- 

 lities with America, derived to both our import and export trade, 

 having now. no competitors in the foreign market j and what is f»:' 



