30 LABRADOR 
setting up a court of civil jurisdiction. A sheriff was ap- 
pointed for the coast, and a vessel was chartered to take 
the judge on his circuit; but it was soon found that the 
undertaking was more expensive than advantageous. In 
1833 the court was abolished. 
Meanwhile a change had been taking place in the fisheries. 
In 1818 a convention was made between the United States 
and Great Britain, by which the inhabitants of the United 
States gained, among other things, the right of taking 
fish of any kind “on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks ”’ 
of the Labrador. American fishermen took advantage 
of this convention in great numbers. In 1820 Captain 
Robinson, of H.M.S. Favourite, reported ‘530 sail of them 
this year.’ The English fishermen began to suffer from 
their competition. Both the American and French fish- 
ermen received bounties from their governments: the first 
in the shape of a drawback on the salt used; and the sec- 
ond in the shape of premiums which were so regulated as 
to make 20 francs per quintal the minimum price received. 
The American fisherman also fished ‘‘in his own vessel, 
built by himself, with timber grown on his own land, and 
with provisions supplied by his own farm.’’ There was 
ereat irritation against the government because of their 
admission of the Americans into what was considered the 
richest part of the fisheries. It was felt that England was 
being generous to the prodigal son at the expense of the son 
who stayed at home. Such a feeling has not died out in 
Newfoundland yet, as recent events have shown. 
Population has never increased by leaps and bounds on 
the Labrador coast. In 1841, however, Samuel Robertson 
said that on his part of the coast there were over two hun- 
