The latter was tabled during the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles 

 which put an end, in 1783, to the War of Independence. France, this time, 

 was in the camp of the conquerors. She wished hardly any other gain than to 

 exact maintenance of the French Shore. Moreover, to the end of conciliating 

 the ill will of the Newfoundlanders, she accepted redefinition of the limits in 

 the sense of a partial exchange of shore. The new situation of fisheries in 

 Newfoundland was regulated by Articles IV and V of the treaty, thus stated: 



Article IV: "His Majesty, King of Great Britain, confirms possession 

 of the Island of Newfoundland and the adjacent islands, as well as all annexed 

 to it by the Treaty of Utrecht, with the exception of the islands of St. Pierre 

 and Miquelon, which are ceded in all claims to His Very Christian Majesty. " 



Article V: "His Majesty, the Very Christian King, in order to prevent 

 quarrels which have occurred up to the present between the French and Eng- 

 lish nations, consents to renounce right to the fishery which belonged to him, 

 by virtue of Article XIH of the Treaty of Utrecht, from Cape Bonavista to 

 Cape Saint- Jean, situated on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, by 50° north- 

 ern latitude. And His Majesty, King of Great Britain, consents for his part 

 that the fishery assigned to the subjects of the Very Christian King, begins at 

 said Cape Saint-Jean, passing to the north and descending, by the northern 

 coast of the island to Newfoundland, extending as far as the place called Cape 

 Raye, situated at 47° 50' latitude. The French fishermen will enjoy the fish- 

 ery which is assigned to them by the present article, as they have had the 

 right to enjoy that which was assigned to them by the treaty of Utrecht. " 



Article IV did away with the humiliating conditions of non- fortification 

 and limitation of the garrison of Saint- Pierre and Miquelon, which had been 

 imposed by the treaty of 1763. If any one, in Newfoundland, should strive to 

 find arguments to contest the fact of this abolition, it was rendered less in- 

 discussable by the debates which the new treaty aroused in the' British Par- 

 liament. In Commons, the opposition, led by Fox, violently reproached the 

 government for having allowed a concession by which France could profit 

 "to fortify the islands, and continue its exploitation in times of war as well 

 as in peace. " 



It does not seem that the new arrangement of the French Shore had a- 

 roused, at the time, any objections on the part of the French fishermen. 

 Eventually it was affirmed that the French government had been duped in ac- 

 cepting this exchange. This opinion appears debatable. The portion of the 

 coast of which France acquired use on the west coast, between Point Riche 



43 



