MISCELLANEOUS. 1299 



Fundy is one in which the people of this country have no imaginable 

 interest: they will neither be richer nor poorer, stronger nor weaker, 

 more admired nor more feared, should they secure the monopoly of 

 fishing in these northern waters to the inhabitants of the seacoast 

 of our North American colonies." 



These are significant declarations. Still further, says this powerful 

 press: "We are, in fact, in this disagreeable position/that, according 

 to the present compact between the mother country and her colonies, 

 she is obliged to take up quarrels in which her interests are in no way in- 

 volved, and is bound over as surety for the good behavior of governments 

 and legislatures actuated by feelings, principles, and interests totally dif- 

 ferent from her own, and over whose actions she has renounced all 

 efficient control." 



It is precisely so; and the London Times might have spoken of one 

 of these colonies as did Mr. Burke.* "The province of Nova Scotia," 

 said he, "is the youngest and favorite child of the board. f Good God! 

 what sums the nursing of that ill-thriven, hard-visaged, and ill-favored 

 brat has cost this wittol$ nation! Sir, this colony has stood us in a sum- 

 not less than seven hundred thousand pounds. To this day, it has made 

 no repayment: it does not even support those offices of expense which are 

 miscalled its government. The whole of that job still lies upon the 

 patient, callous shoulders of the people of England." 



I have not designed, in the strictures which have appeared in this 

 paper, to include the great mass of the people of Nova Scotia. Terms 

 of severity, whenever found, have been designed entirely for the busy, 

 restless politicians of that colony, who originally stirred up, and have 

 kept alive, the existing strife. The people, as a body, I am persuaded, 

 entertain no feelings of hostility towards us. If allowed, they would 

 afford us all possible aid in conducting our enterprises in their waters, 

 and would deal with us in the most neighborly and liberal manner. 

 They are willing to admit that there are fish enough both for them- 

 selves and for us. We are to spare our censures of colonial fishermen, 

 then, and to speak harshly of the political men alone who. for pur- 

 poses of their own, have conceived plans which, if executed, will do 

 vast injury to us, and ultimately to the colonists themselves; for it is 

 not to be overlooked that retalitory legislation on the part of Congress 

 would utterly ruin the colonial fisheries. 



* Speech on economical reform, House of Commons, February 11, 1780. 



t Board of Trade and Plantations. 



J Witol, wittal, or wittol: an old Saxon word, signifying a contented cuckold. 



