27 



• At the peace, a deputation of English merchants and others con-, 

 nected with Newfoundland entreated their government to refuse to 

 France continued rights of fishing allowed under the treaties of 1713, 

 of 1763, and. of 1783i But the British ministry, aside from general 

 considerations, regarded the restoration of the Bourbons as an event of 

 momentous consequence to Europe, and confirmed to France all her 

 foreign possessions exactly, as they stood at the commencement of the 

 war. The Newfoundland colonists have never ceased to complain of 

 the renewed competition which this policy required them to meet. 

 They contend that, whatever w as the opinion in 17 S3 , the fi shing-grounds 

 along the shores from Cape Ray to Cape John, which are enjoyed by 

 the French to {he exclusion of sdl others, are, in the judgment of every, 

 person competent to decide, the very best at Newfoundland ; and they 

 further insist, by reason of the advantages possessed by France and 

 the United States, that the English deep-sea fishery has been aban- 

 doned. These and similar statements are to be found in official papers 

 and in private letters, and are never omitted by the colonists in their 

 conversations on the subject of their fisheries. 



It may not be unkind to reply that the French and American fisher^ 

 men are industrious, and that there need be no other explanation of 

 their success. 



The insertion here of the thirteenth article of the treaty of Paris in 

 1814 is not necessary. As already intimated, the French were con- 

 firmed in the rights which they possessed previous to the war. The 

 eleventh article of the treaty of Paris in the following year, at the 

 general pacification in Europe, reiterates the confirmation. Referenc^e, 

 therefore, to the articles of the treaty of 1783, to the "declaration" and 

 "counter declaration" recorded at length in the proper connexion, will 

 afford a perfect knowledge of the present extent, limitations, and local- 

 ities of the fishing-grounds of France in the American seas. 



With peace came prosperity. In 1816, the French tonnage at New- 

 foundland was nearly thirty-one thousand; the amount in 1823, how- 

 ever, appears to have been reduced nearly one-half. It rose suddenly, 

 and m a single year, to about thirty-seven thousand, and, increasing an- 

 nually, except in 1825, was upwards of fifty thousand in 1829. In 

 the succeeding ten years the increase was only five thousand. 



The number of vessels employed in 1841 and two years later was 

 about four hundred; and the number of seamen in 1847 was estimated 

 at twelve thousand. These facts, on which I rely, afford proof that the 

 Newfoundland fishery is now prosecuted with energy and success. To 

 follow the statements of the English colonists which are to be met with 

 in official documents, the number of men engaged at St. Pierre and 

 Miquelon, and on various parts of the coast between Cape Ray and 

 i^ape John, should be computed at twenty-five thousand. There is 

 the same authority for estimating the annual catch of fish at one mil- 

 lion of quintals. 



I regard the views of M. D. L. Rodet, of Paris, as far more accu- 

 rate. He states that, "without her colonies,^'' the cod-fishery would "be- 

 come nearly extinet;" that these colonies "only consume annually dghty 

 thousand quintals;" that foreign nations "scarcely take a JiftV of the 

 catch; and that "it is by submitting to the exorbitant duties, which a]t 



