OUE SEA FISHEKIES. 225 



this Country, nationally, may be summed up in tlie 

 words of De Witt : " That the English navy became 

 formidable by the discovery of the inexpressibly 

 rich fishery-ground of Newfoundland." i 



Now let us see what our paternal Government 

 has been doing with this most valuable possession — 

 3,000,000Z. a year, and the maintenance of men 

 enough for a couple of fleets. All the gold-mines 

 in our possession cannot equal this, for they are 

 exhaustible: properly worked, Newfoundland is in- 

 exhaustible. In 1857, a treaty was concluded between 

 our Government and France, in which the British 

 Government literally handed over the most valuable 

 part of the Newfoundland fisheries to the French, 

 granting to them the exclusive right of occupying 

 large tracts on the coast, for the purpose of cleaning, 

 packing, &c., with other rights of a judicial and 



1 The question of our fiaheries in connexion with the question cf 

 manning our navy, is of far greater importance to ue now than 

 ever it was, since the alteration of maritime law by the Declaration 

 of Paris places us in the position, that should we engage in a firsi- 

 dass naral war with France or with any other Powers, the 

 whole of our shipping trade would and must pass over into the 

 hands of neutrals, since who that could send their goods safely by 

 neutrals would risk it in belligerents? If the trade goes of course 

 the ships must go, for who Will keep ships when there is nothing 

 for them to do ? The men also must of course, follow, so that wo 

 cannot rely on our merchant seamen to supply the ravages of war 

 made in our navy, 



Q 



