1068 MISCELLANEOUS. 



from Cape John to Cape Ray, with the Islands of St. Pierre and 

 Miquelon, we gave that ambitious nation all the means that her gov- 

 ernment desires of manning a navy ; and, if we were determined to lay 

 a train of circumstances which, by their operation, should sap the very 

 vitals of our native strength, we could not more effectually have done 

 so than by granting a full participation of those fisheries to France 

 and America." 



AMERICAN FISHERIES. 



Your Committee, in referring to the American fisheries, have also 

 to say, that they have no data to ground a correct estimate of them ; 

 but they can state that it is very extensive, employing from one thou- 

 sand five hundred to two thousand sail of decked vessels, averaging 

 from forty to one hundred tons burthen. The catch of fish in the 

 British waters has been estimated at one million one hundred thou- 

 sand quintals, which must give employment to twenty-five thousand 

 fishermen and seamen. The American fishers are observed in great 

 numbers on the Grand Bank, and on the fishing grounds in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence all along the shores of Nova Scotia, Prince Ed- 

 ward's Island, Newfoundland, and the shores of Labrador. They 

 commence their Fishery early in the Spring, and follow it up with 

 the greatest assiduity, to the latest period of the fall. The American 

 fishery is encouraged by a bounty of twenty shillings per ton, and the 

 supply of their own markets protected by a duty of five shilling per 

 quintal on foreign fish. 



Your Committee have to observe that the great catch of Fish by the 

 Americans, supported as it is by bounties and other encouragements, 

 operates, concurrently with the French catch and bounties, to sap the 

 foundation of the British fishery. 



By the Convention of 1818 the Americans of the United States are 

 allowed to fish along all our coasts and harbors, within three marine 

 miles of the shore, (an indefinite distance) and of curing fish in such 

 harbours and bays as are uninhabited, or, if inhabited, with the con- 

 sent of the inhabitants. The expert and industrious Americans, ever 

 fertile in expedients, and always on the alert in the produce of gain, 

 know well how to take advantage of such a profitable concession. 



From the sea coasts of Newfoundland ceded to France, which 

 comprehend half the shores of the Island, and the best fishing 

 grounds, our fishermen have been expelled, and driven to the necessity 

 of resorting from two to four hundred miles further North, to the 

 coast of Labrador, where they are again met by the swarms of 

 Americans. 



" By particular circumstances, and the better to accomplish their 

 object, the Americans are known to be guided by one feeling to act 

 more in union on arriving on the fishing coasts; they frequently 

 occupy the whole of the best fishing banks, to the exclusion of our 

 fishermen ; and their daring aggressions have gone so far as to drive 

 by force our vessels and boats from their stations, and tear down the 

 British flag in the harbors, hoisting in its place that of the United 

 States ; they are easily enabled, from their vastly superior numbers, 

 to take all manner of advantage of our people. They frequently fish 

 by means of seines, which they spread across the best places along 

 the shores, and thus prevent the industry and success of the British 

 Fishermen." 



