INTRODUCTION 



In his ' English Traits " Emerson speaks of Great Britain as anchored 

 oS the continent of Europe, which expression, however poetical and 

 figurative, stamps the Briton as a natural born sailor and serves to 

 explain in part the maritime supremacy of the British Isles, without 

 which they could not exist as an independent nation. In a literal and 

 material sense of the word Newfoundland may be considered as a vast 

 island moored in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and for centuries the 

 British law-maker considered it as a huge ship anchored off the coast 

 of Canada, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and applied to it the 

 characteristics and qualities of a fishing vessel.' 



The island was not a colony in the proper sense of the word. It was 

 rather the deck or strand upon which preparations were made for 

 fishing, and on which the catch was dried and cured. Colonization 

 was prevented.^ Immigrants who resorted to its inhospitable shores 

 and settled upon its territory were treated with scant consideration 

 as little better than outlaws, and depied the protection of just laws and 

 of courts of justice for their administration.^ The sovereignty of the 



■In his evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, given April •24, 1793, Mr. 

 William Knox, formerly one of the Under Secretaries of State in the American department, 

 stated — 



"That the island of Newfoundland bad been considered, in all former times, as a great 

 English ship moored near the Banks during the fishing season, for the convenience of the English 

 Fishermen. The Governor was considered as the ship's Captain, and all those who were con- 

 cerned in the Fishery business, as his crew, and subject to naval discipline while there, and 

 expected to return to England when the season was over." (Appendix, U. S. Counter Case, 

 p. s6o.) 



*"To prevent the increase of inhabitants on the island, the most positive instructions were 

 given to the Governors not to make any grants of the lands, and to reduce the number of those 

 who were already settled there. Their vessels, as well as those belonging to the colonies, were 

 to be denied any priority of right in occupying stations in the bays or harbors for curing their 

 Fish over the vessels from England; and he was instructed to withhold from them whatever 

 might serve to encourage them to remain on the island; and, as Lord North expressed it, what- 

 ever they loved to have roasted, he was to give them raw; and whatever they wished to have 

 raw, he was to give them roasted." (Ibid., p. 561.) 



'"Unjust and injurious laws were enacted by the English government, to prevent the 

 settlement of the island, and to keep it forever in the degraded condition of a stage for drying 

 fish. These laws forbade any one to go to Newfoundland as a settler, and ordained that all 

 fishermen should return to England at the close of the fishing season. Masters of vessels were 

 compelled to give bonds of £100, binding them to bring back each year such persons as they 

 took out. Settlement within six miles of tlie coast was prohibited under heavy penalties. 

 No one could cultivate or enclose the smallest piece of ground or even repair a home, without 

 license, which was rarely granted. This oppressive policy was maintained for more than a 

 hundred years." (Harvey: Text-Book of Newfoundland History, p. 81. 1883.) 



