1138 MISCELLANEOUS. 



that the concessions were "universally and justly condemned." Such 

 are some of the words of reproach that appear in an official report. 

 In the political ferocity of the time, Lord Oxford was impeached ; and 

 it is among the charges against him that, "in defiance of an express 

 act of Parliament, as well as in contempt of the frequent and earnest 

 representations of the merchants of Great Britain and of the com- 

 missioners of trade and plantations," he, Robert, Earl of Oxford, and 

 Earl Mortimer,* had advised his sovereign that "the subjects of 

 France should have the liberty of fishing and drying fish in New- 

 foundland." 



His lordship was committed to the Tower, and tried for high 

 treason; but such has been the advance of civilization and of 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 to be held by British subjects as a monopoly, and to 

 the exclusion of all other people, has never since been wholly dis- 

 regarded by any British minister, and we may hope will ever now 

 appear in British diplomacy to mark the progress of liberal 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 of 

 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 itself 

 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 circum- 

 stances of their position, they recovered from 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 

 previous to 1734. 



* Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer, a distinguished minister of state 

 in the reign of Queen Anne, was born in 1661. "After the peace of Utrecht, the tory 

 statesmen, having no longer apprehensions of danger from abroad, began to quarrel 

 among themselves and the two chiefs, Oxford and Bolingbroke, especially, became 

 personal and political foes." Soon after the succession of George I, Oxford was im- 

 peached of high treason by the House of Commons, and was committed to the Tower. 

 The Duke of Marlborough was among his enemies. Bolingbroke fled to the continent. 

 Oxford was tried before the House of Peers in 1717, and acquitted of the crimes alleged 

 against him. He was the friend of Pope, Swift, and other literary men of the time. 

 He died in 1724. His son Edward, the second Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer, was 

 also a great and liberal patron of literature and learned men, and completed the valu- 

 able collection of manuscripts which he commenced, and which is now in the British 

 Museum, 



