I fa Inipi't'hd Itnportnnce. 5 



of the early navigators. Half a century passed, and the battle 

 between France and England for the supremacy in xVmerica was 

 continued on the sliores of tiie St. Lawrence and of Lake Cham- 

 plain. At last, Louisbourg, Quebec, Montreal, and less important 

 French posts fell before the victorious soldiers of England, and 

 when th'j Treaty of Paris was signed in 17G'3, of all the posses- 

 sions France once owned on the St. Lawrence and by the sea, 

 there remained to her only two rocky islets otf the coast of New- 

 foundland. To St. Pierre and Mequelon, insignificant as they 

 look on the map, she has always clung with great pertinacity 

 whenever it has been a question of a new treaty between herself 

 and Great Britain. The privileges she obtained by the Treaty 

 of Utrecht, of participating in the fisherins of Newfoundland, and 

 of frequenting a limited range of coast for purposes solely con- 

 nected with the prosecution of those fisheries, have remained in 

 force up to the present time, with a few modifications necessary 

 to preserve peace and order on the shores of the island, where a 

 small British population has grown up in the course of years. 

 St. Pierre is now a place possessing many of the characteristics 

 of a port on the Breton shores, and is the headquarters of a naval 

 squ£.dron for the protection of the large fleet of French fishing 

 vessels which frequent the waters of Newfoundland from spring 

 to autumn. This little island has all the essential features of a 

 French colony — a commandant, a staff of minor ollicials, and 

 several gens d'arnies. Its existence for nearly two centuries is 

 very clear evidence of the importance France still attaches to 

 the prosecution of the fisheries in North America. 



Disputes have often arisen between British and French fisher- 

 men as the consequence of the concessions made originally by 

 this famous Treaty of Utrecht. The Government of Newfound- 

 land has deluged the Colonial Office with dispatches on the 

 subject, and several Com mi'-sions have been appointed to prevent 

 disputes. If Newfoundland were a portion of the Dominion of 

 Canada, or was able to otFer anv larijje inducements to immiora- 

 tion, we should probably hear more (;f the discontent that crops 

 'ip from time to time in the island, and the matter might assume 

 a more serious i.spect ; but as it is, the whole question has never 

 received any at;ent'<>n outside the Foreign and C(jl()nia.l Oltices, 

 and a new Convention is (juietly arranged, as was tiie case a few 

 weeks ago, for the purpose of tiding over difficulties as they arise. 



It is not with the fishery difficulty between France and 

 Newfoundland that we purpose to deal in this paper, 

 but with a much larger Question affecting the interests 

 of the most important dependency of the empire, as well as 

 those of the great island itself which still stands sullenly apart 

 from the confetierated pritvinces. This cpiestion has arisen 



B-2 



