MISCELLANEOUS. 1071 



dispense with, although the cost would be six or eight millions, 

 without reckoning many other expenses. Thus the only question 

 that has so long been discussed is this, whether the same advantages 

 may be obtained, at a reduced expense; prudence would forbid my 

 recommending at present an experiment which might compromise 

 this valuable trade, as well as in some degree the security of the 

 state" " That at present a reduction could not be made without 

 being liable to endanger the property of a great many merchants, 

 the existence of a large portion of our maritime population, and the 

 interests of a branch of the public service, to the prosperity of which 

 the whole national welfare is so closely allied" 



The General Assembly, in drawing Your Majesty's attention to the 

 recommendation of the French Minister to the King of France, show- 

 ing the paramount importance, in a national point of view, of the 

 Fisheries on the Banks and along the shores of Newfoundland, 

 humbly take leave to remind Your Majesty that their great value 

 has been viewed in the same light by Your Majesty's Royal Prede- 

 cessors, and by the long line of eminent ministers and statesmen who 

 directed and guided their Councils. 



MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY 



It is not the exclusive privilege exercised by Foreigners on the most 

 productive Fishing grounds that we so much complain of, as the 

 effect of the large Bounties and other protection afforded by the 

 Governments of France and America to their subjects engaged in the 

 Newfoundland Fisheries. These Bounties amount to many hundred 

 thousand pounds per annum ; the effect of which operates against the 

 British Fisheries more injuriously than would a direct impost for 

 an equal amount. It creates an unequal competition in the markets 

 in Europe and the West Indies, most injurious to Your Majesty's 

 subjects engaged in the Fisheries. British fish must be sold in these 

 markets at the same rate as the fish of the French and Americans, 

 caught under the protection of enormous bounties. There are many 

 other matters connected with this subject which we might adduce, 

 but we will not at present presume to press them on Your Majesty's 

 attention. We now most humbly pray that Your Majesty will direct 

 an inquiry to be made into the cause why the deep sea fishery on the 

 Banks of Newfoundland has been transferred altogether into the 

 hands of the subjects of France and America. 



The General Assembly humbly pray Your Majesty will take steps 

 to persuade the Governments of France and America to withdraw 

 their Bounties to the Newfoundland Fisheries, so that Your Majesty's 

 subjects may be placed on an equal footing with them. 



We humbly hope that means may be devised to afford some encour- 

 agement for the development of the Agricultural resources of the 

 country. Were it not for the employment afforded by the cultivation 

 of the soil, since the cession of the Fisheries to the French and 

 Americans by the treaties of 1814 and 1818, Your Majesty's subjects 

 could not have withstood the unequal competition, and must have 

 removed from the Island, and surrendered those valuable Fisheries 

 altogether into the hands of their foreign rivals. 



Resolved, That the said Address be adopted. 



Ordered, That the said Address be engrossed. 



