INTRODUCTION XI 



colonization of Newfoundland was inimical to their special interests,' 

 and an unreformed Parliament, in which these interests were repre- 

 sented, treated the fishery as a nursery for the navy and doomed the 

 island to centuries of misgovernment when neglect, however unpar- 

 donable, would have been an act of kindness. As apparent from the 

 extract quoted, the coast was treated as uninhabited, subject to pre- 

 emption by the fishing captain, termed for the fishing season the Admiral, 

 who first entered the harbor, and who was invested with the power 

 and the duty of maintain'ng the degree of law and order deemed neces- 

 sary for the prosecution of the fisheries. It was not until the year 

 1729 that a naval officer was designated as Governor of the island, to 

 whom appeals might be taken from the rough-handed justice adminis- 

 tered by the fishing admirals; and the Governor himself appeared in 

 Newfoundland waters with the opening of the fishing season and left 

 them in August, when the fishery, the sole reason for his presence, ceased. 

 It was only in 1791 and 1792 that a court of justice was established by 

 an act of Parliament, although justices of the peace with indeterminate 

 jurisdiction had been appointed and a vice-admiralty court of uncertain 

 and far-reaching powers had been established. It was only in 1818, 

 that is, in- the very year in which the Convention of 181 8 was concluded 

 between Great Britain and the United States, that the Governor of New- 

 foundland was compelled to reside within the island beyond the fishing 

 season. It was only in 1824 that an adequate judicial organization was 

 completed. It was only in 1832 that a legislature was called into being 

 by the reformed Parliament of Great Britain, and, finally, it was only in 

 1854 that Newfoundland was invested with the inestimable blessings 

 of a responsible local self-government.^ 



The mere statement of these facts is in itself sufficient to show that 

 Newfoundland was but a vast fishing ground and that it was admin- 

 istered solely for the benefit of the merchant adventurers who fished on 



i"What they wanted was, as one of their own party expressed it, 'that Newfoundland 

 should always be considered as a great English ship, moored near the Banks, during the fishing 

 season, for the convenience of English fishermen.' " (Harvey, Text-Book of Newfoundland 

 History, p. 84. 1885.) 



"They were able to persuade the English statesmen and people that the fisheries would 

 be ruined if a resident population should be allowed to grow up in the island, and the fisheries 

 would no longer be a nursery of seamen for the navy. Further, they misled the pubUc by 

 representing the island as helplessly barren, and, in regard to its soil and climate, unfit for 

 human habitation." (Ibid., p. 81.) 



^ In response to the local protests to the proposed agreement of 1837 between Great Britain 

 and France, Mr. Labouchere, Secretary of State for the Colonies, assured the Governor that 

 "the consent of the community of Newfoundland is regarded by Her Majesty's Government as 

 an essential preliminary to any modification of their territorial or maritime rights." 



From this period, therefore, Newfoundland possessed not merely the right of local self- 

 government, but a voice in international agreements which effected the external status of the 

 colony. 



