4 Tlie Fialtery Question : 



ambition of France received the first ^reat blow in America, and 

 England obtained control of the most valuable fisheries of the 

 New World. It has been often questioned whether Englnnd, 

 after all, received any snbstanti;d advantai,'es from the victories 

 which, during the war of the Spanish Succession, humbled the pride 

 of the Grand Kinij, and 2[ave to Alarlborouirh an eternal fame. In 

 Southey's well-known poem little Peterkin but voiced the puijlic 

 sentiment of the century when, after listening to old Kaspar^s 

 account of Blenheim, he sagely asked, '• but what good came of 

 it at last?" We all know that the issue was the Treaty of 

 Utrecht — that much-abused emanation of the diplomatic in- 

 trigues of Hailey and 8t. John. Professor Seeley, however, in 

 his very suggestive work on the "Expansion of England," does not 

 place himself among those historical writers who have nothing 

 but censure for the conditions of that famous instrument. In 

 his opinion this treaty marks one of the important epochs in 

 the history of England's greatness. He looks upon the war 

 as "in reality the most business-like of all the contests in which 

 England ever engaged/' Much is certainly to be said in support of 

 his argument, that the successful accomplishment of the designs 

 of Louis Quatorze on the crown of Spain would have closed 

 *' almost the whole New World to the English and Dutch, and 

 thrown it open to the countrymen of " Colbert, who were at 

 that moment exploring and settling the Mississippi." By the 

 signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, however, the ambitious plans 

 of the Fr(!nch King were foiled, and England entered on a new 

 career of colonial and maritime greatness. 



Englishmen in these days will hardly care to dwell on that 

 part of the treaty wdiich induced England to enter, as a com- 

 petitor with Spain, on the infamous slave trade. All of us, 

 however, will recognize the value of the provisions which gave 

 England the undisputed possession of Newfoundland as well as of 

 Nova Scotia, then known by the historic name of Acadie. Here 

 was the commencement of that new Dominion which in later 

 times was to stretch across the northern half of the continent, 

 and in a measure compensate England for the loss of those 

 colonies which in the davs of Queen Anne were strucjcfling to 

 establish themselves on the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to 

 the Carolinas. Here for the first time the fishery question makes 

 its appearance in history. J?y the Treaty of Utrecht France gave 

 up Newfoundland to Great Britain, but at the same time received, 

 certain privileges on the coast as essential to the prosecution of 

 the fisheries which she valued so highly. As a base of opera- 

 tions for this great industry, she retained possession of He 

 Royale, now known as Cape Breton, and of the islets of St. 

 Pierre and Me(|uclon, ofi" the southern coast of the Prima Vista 



