THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 1 83 



The preliminaries of the " <^th Vendhniaire an X," ist January, 

 1792, declared that the fishery rights of France on the Newfound- 

 land coast shall be maintained as they existed before the war, with 

 the exception of some verbal modifications which appeared necessary, 

 but it altered in no important particular the provisions of the 

 Treaty of 1783. 



The Treaties of Paris, 30th May, 1814, and 30th November, 1815, 

 re-established the state of things recognised on the ist January, 

 1792, and the following are the clauses in the Treaties of 18 14 and 

 1815 :— 



Treaty of Paris — 1814. 

 Article VIII. 

 His Britannic Majesty, stipulating for himself and his allies, engages to restore to 

 his most Christian Majesty, within the term which shall be hereafter fixed, the 

 colonies, fisheries, factories, and establishments of every kind which were possessed by 

 France on the ist January, 1792, in the seas and on the continents of America, Africa, 

 and Asia, with the exception, however, of the islands of Tobago and St. Lucie, and the 

 Isle of France and its dependencies, especially Rodrigues and Les Schelles, which 

 several colonies and possessions his most Christian Majesty cedes in full right and 

 sovereignty to his Britannic Majesty, and also the portion of St. Domingo ceded to 

 France by the Treaty of Basle, and which his most Christian Majesty restores in full 

 right and sovereignty to his Catholic Majesty. 



Article XIII. 

 The French right of fishery upon the Great Bank of Newfoundland, upon the 

 coasts of the island of that name, and of the adjacent islands in the gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, shall be replaced upon the footing in which it stood in 1792. 



Treaty of Paris— iSiS- 

 Article XI. 

 The Treaty of Paris, of the 13th May, 1814, and the final act of the Congress of 

 Vienna, of the 9th of June, 1815, are confirmed, and shall be maintained in all such 

 enactments which shall not have been modified by the articles of the present Treaty. 



Consequently France takes her stand, as she has previously done, 

 on the Treaties of Utrecht'of 1713, of Paris of 1763, of Versailles of 

 1783, of ist January, 1792, of Amiens of 1805, of Paris of 1814, 



and 1815. 



Such is the origin of the French right to fish on the shores of 

 Newfoundland, such are the bases upon which it rests ; nothing has 

 happened since that day, to diminish, or to modify them in principle. 

 The text of the Treaties has not ceased, however, to be the object 

 of interpretations the most diverse, by the Governments of England 

 and France, and of the Legislature of Newfoundland. 



