THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. IQI 



by M. de Gobineau, first secretary of the French Ambassador ; and 

 the delegates of England were Mr. Kent, the Colonial Secretary of 

 Newfoundland," and Captain Dunlop, Commander of the British man- 

 of-war, Tartar. 



The Commissioners of the two nations inspected together the 

 harbours of the coast, interrogated the fishermen, in English or 

 in French, according to their nationality, and they met alternately 

 on board the French gunboat, Le Gassendi, and the British man-of- 

 war, the Tartar ; and at each meeting a prods-verbal was drawn up 

 in the two languages, and when the Commission had examined the 

 contents and approved the translations they signed the document. 



The labours of this enquiry terminated 29th August, 1859, on 

 board the French gunboat, Le Gassendi, and its result was, that 

 a profound study of the texts of the Treaties of Utrecht, Paris, 

 and Versailles, and an examination of the diverse interpretations which 

 England and France had placed upon them, confirmed the French 

 delegates in the opinion that the rights of France were exclusive 

 and absolute, and that they secured a wider application than was. 

 generally believed. 



Therefore the French Government were induced to believe their 

 rights were unassailable, that they were easy to maintain, and 

 there was no occasion, in order to secure a respect for those rights, 

 to enter on a course of concessions with England that would in the 

 least imperil them. 



MM. de Montaignac de Chauyance and Gobineau estimated the 

 population established upon the coast line for fishing, by Treaty 

 with France, at 3,000 souls, and that during a period of the past 20- 

 years it had doubled. 



This mixed Commission drew up as its conclusions the following: 

 propositions : — 



I. An organisation in common with a lopal police should be appointed to regu- 

 late the differences between the English and the French fishermen. 



n. Complete liberty for the fishermen of the two nations to buy and sell bait, 

 with this restriction, that from the 20th October to the ist April following, 

 it will be considered a close time for the herring. 



In the month of March, i860, the report of the Commission was 

 placed before their respective Governments, and was considered as 

 suitable to serve the basis of an amicable arrangement ; but again 

 difficulties were raised by a movement of hostility displayed at St. 

 John's. 



Thus' the inquiry of 1859 had no other result than to maintain 



