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and required the manning of ships, at his own expense, to protect his 

 private interests, and the defenceless English fishermen on the coast. 

 Relinquishing, finally, his plantation at Newfoundland, he turned his 

 thomghts to more hospitable regions, and, as Lord Baltimore, became the 

 father of- Maryland. 



Of all whp sought our shores to, acquire power and princely estates, 

 to escape persecution, or to give a home and shelter to the weary and 

 stricken, not one — whether Puritan, EpiscopaUan, or Quaker — was ac- 

 tuated by a spirit more Uberal, or has left a better name, than George 

 Calvert, the Catholic* 



Remarking that Winthrop records in his journal.(1647) the, occurrence 

 of athEuraicane at Newfoundland, which wrecked many ships and boats-, 

 and ^festrbyed quantities offish, we come tothe time of Charles the Sec-^ 

 ond<„ . That monarch, after the restoration, in 1660, issued a long procr 

 lartfE^bn for the strict observance of Lent, assigning, as one reason there- 

 for, " the good it produces in the employment of fishermen." StiU fur- 

 ther to encouragethis branch of industry. Parliament passed an act the 

 same year remitting the duty on salt used in curing fish, and exempting 

 the materials required in the fisheries: from customs and excise. Three 

 years later, the Newfoundland fishery was specially protected by an 

 entire exemption from levies and duties; and the home and colonial 

 fisheries were at the same time assisted by duties imposed on products 

 of the sea, imported by foreigners or aliens. 



Yet, the number of ships employed at Newfoundland decHned aunur 

 ally. In 1670, the inerchants sent out barely eighty. The decline 

 was attributed to the boat fishery, carried on by the inhabitants there. 

 Sic Josiah Child,+ the leading authority of the day in matters of trade 

 and commerce, sounded the note of alarm, anticipating that, if the resi--. 

 dent fishermen contined to increase,. they would, in flie end, carry oa 

 the whole fishery, and, that the nursery of British seamen would be 

 destroyed. The only remedy he proposed was the annihilation of the ■ 

 boat fishery. Never was a more unjust expedient conceived* The 

 labors, the expenditures, and sacrifices, of a large number of eminent 

 and adventurous men, who had devoted life and fortune to the coloni- 

 zation of Newfoundland, were thus to be counted as worthless, andi 

 even injurious to the realm. But the views of Child were adopted hy 

 the Lords of Trade and Plantations,^ who determined to break up- 



* George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, and fonnder of Marj-land, was horn in England in, 

 1582. He was appointed one of the principal secretariea of state in 1619; and while holding . 

 office he acquired the southeastern peninsula of Newfoundland, which he erected into a prot- 

 ince called Avalon. In 1624 he became a Catholic After his abandonment of Newfoundland , 

 he made a visit to Yirgipaa, but the colonists disliked bis religion, and he relinquished his mten- 

 tion to settle among them. On his return to England, Charles the First gave him a patent,of ;' 

 the cowitry now Maryland. Lord Baltimore died in London in 1632, before his patent had 

 passed the necessaiy forms ; and a new one was issued to his son Cecil, who succeeded to bis ' 

 honors. 



t Sir Josiah Child was a merchant. It is said that he acquired great wealth in the "manage- 

 ment" of the East India Company's stock. When his daughter married the eldest son of the 

 Duke of Beaufort, he gave her a portion of £50,000. Sir Josiah had fish-ponds in Epping, 

 forest, " many miles in circuit." 



t The Board of Trade and Plantations was of no service to the American colonies, thoughi 

 created for the special purpose of attending to their interests. Mr. Burke, in a speech in the 

 House of Commons, in 1780, thus spoke of it : " This board is a sort of temperate bed of 

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