220 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 



THE DELEGATION OF 1891. 



This year another Delegation from Newfoundland, appointed, in 

 response to an invitation from H.M. Government, by the Colonial 

 Parliament, consisting of the following gentlemen : — Sir WilHam 

 Whiteway, Premier; the Hon. G. H. Emerson, Speaker of the 

 House of Assembly ; the Hon. A. W. Han^ey and James Stuart Pitts, 

 Members of the Legislative Council ; and A. Morine, Member of 

 the House of Assembly, arrived in London on the 20th April, 1891. 



They have been appointed for the purpose of submitting the views 

 of the Colonial Government, to the Parliament of England, in 

 anticipation of the special Legislation proposed in regard to the 

 renewal of the modus vivendi, recommended by H.M. Government, 

 being adopted by the two Houses of Parliament. 



This Delegation being more influential and official than that 

 of last year, its action and declarations, are therefore, more weighty, 

 and deserve, as they will obtain, the serious attention of the Parlia- 

 ment and Government of England. 



Whether by pre-arrangement or by accident, we will not stop to 

 enquire, the Address from the Government and Joint Legislatures 

 of Newfoundland, entrusted to the Delegates for presentation to 

 the Imperial Parliament, was telegraphed from New York on the 

 17th April, and appeared in the columns of the Times on the 

 following day, and as this Address represents the calm and deliberate 

 judgment of the Executive of the Colony, we submit its full text, 

 which is as follows : — 



" We the legislative Council of the House of Assembly of Newfoundland beg leave 

 to approach your honourable Parliament, and to appeal for your protection and sup- 

 port under circumstances which have filled the minds of all classes of this country with 

 profound anxiety and dismay. ' 



" Your honourable House may be aware that the old-time difficulties, consequent 

 upon the Treaties of Great Britain and France on the subject of the Newfoundland 

 fisheries, have of late years assumed an unaccustomed gravity producing a painful and 

 ceaseless agitation among our people. 



" Two delegates have proceeded from this country during the last year to represent 

 to Her Majesty's Goverment the exorbitant claims of the French under the alleged 

 sanction of the Treaties referred to, and, further, to point out the injustice wrought 

 upon the natives of Newfoundland. Their efforts for redress have been so far unsuc- 

 cessful, and we are now confronted with a ne^y evil essentially more intolerable than 

 any of those with which experience has rendered us so famihar. We refer to the pro- 

 posal of Her Majesty's Government, by the Bill now before your honourable Parlia- 

 ment, to re-enact the Act George IV., cap. 51, for the better conductor Treaties 

 between Great Britain and France respecting the Newfoundland Fisheries, which Act 

 expired in 1834. 



