INTRODUCTION xv 



French subjects are not granted the right to catch fish generally 

 within Newfoundland waters. They are to be permitted to fish from 

 Cape Bonavista to Point Riche, and the treaty recognizing the right 

 to fish within specific limits guarantees the enjoyment of the right 

 allowed or granted. British subjects are not excluded by the terms of 

 the treaty from fishing within these limits. It would appear, therefore, 

 that British subjects might, by virtue of British sovereignty, fish within 

 these limits. As French subjects were granted the right to fish within 

 specified limits, competition was not excluded, and controversies might 

 and actually did arise between the French and British subjects within 

 the region stretching from Cape Bonavista to Point Riche. It is self- 

 evident that British subjects might use the shores of Newfoundland in 

 the prosecution of their calling. It is equally evident that French 

 subjects would need a specific permission to use the coasts, and this 

 specific permission is contained in the treaty, which allows them 

 not merely to catch fish, but "to dry them on land," stretching 

 from Cape Bonavista to Point Riche. This was, hdwever, to be the 

 extreme limit within which French fishermen could use the shores of 

 the island, because the article limited them expressis verbis to that part 

 of the island. 



It is frequently asserted by French pubHcists that Article XIII is not 

 a grant of a new right, but is a solemn recognition of a pre-existing 

 sovereignty; that in consideration of the conveyance of sovereignty to 

 Britain, France retained its former sovereign right to fish and to use the 

 portions of the coast between Cape Bonavista and Point Riche, and as 

 France claimed to be sovereign of these waters and the coast washed by 

 them, the treaty liberty is a recognition of a previously existing sovereign 

 right. British publicists, however, insist that the Treaty of Utrecht was 

 a conveyance to Great Britain of any and aU rights possessed or 

 claimed by France within Newfoundland and its territorial waters, and 

 that the rights secured to France by the treaty were in the nature of a 

 permission or a license. The language of the treaty is perhaps ambig- 

 uous. The attitude of the two governments, however, has been clear 

 and constant. The expression "allowed" seems- to favor the British 

 contention. In the unsettled state of Newfoundland the matter was 

 not of any great importance. 



The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) put an end to the domination of 

 France in the New World and required a readjustment and definitive 

 statement of the situation of the two governments in North America. 

 The Treaty of 1763, which ended the war, confirmed the fishing rights of 

 France as specified in Article XIII of the Treaty of Utrecht. 



