THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 1 73 



The relations of England with Newfoundland, although they are 

 not quite so far remote as those of France, yet they have been of a 

 more important and intimate character. 



In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, acting under a Commission from 

 Queen Elizabeth, formally took possession of Newfoundland, on 

 behalf of the English Sovereign, but on the return voyage, the ex- 

 pedition was scattered and overwhelmed by a storm, and the Com- 

 mander perished. 



In 1 62 1 Sir George Calvert, who subsequently became Lord 

 Baltimore, settled and colonised on the peninsula in the south-east 

 portion of the island, which he constituted a province, under the 

 name of Avalon, and this title it still retaitis. 



From 1583 down to the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, Great Britain 

 steadily and firmly established her rule and dominion over New- 

 foundland, as shown by several Measures of Administration, such as 

 the granting by the Crown of portions of territory to English Colonists 

 for cultivation ; the establishing of Courts of Justice ; the issuing 

 of Commissions of Authority for fishing operations ; the Rules and 

 procedure for the good Government of the Colony; and the en- 

 couragement generally to Settlers for the Colonisation of the Island. 



In 1698 the Parliament of England passed an Act which recog- 

 nised the various Regulations, Commissions, and Procedures that had 

 been provisionally in operation, and thereby brought within the 

 sphere of English Legislation the whole of the dominions of New- 

 foundland, applicable to its rivers, its waters, and the islands 

 surrounding it. 



The British Sovereignty established under the authority of Queen 

 Elizabeth in 1583, and subsequently consolidated by the Act of the 

 Imperial Legislature of 1 698, was recognised by France, and as proof 

 thereof, in 1635, during the reign of Charles I., the French applied 

 for, and obtained permission of the English Government to carry on 

 fishing operations in the waters of Newfoundland, and also to dry 

 their fish on the shores of the Island, and for this concession from 

 England the French fishermen agreed to pay to the Colonial 

 Authorities a duty of five per cent, on the market value of their 

 produce. 



In consequence of this concession, made by King Charles I. of 

 England, the fishermen of France annually visited Newfoundland to 

 prosecute the cod fishery, and they limited their fishing operations 

 to the Northern portion of the Island, which was called Le Petit 

 Nord, and also on the Southern coast-line, especially in the Bay of 



