It was this that the Newfoundlanders absolutely refused to accept. They 

 claimed in principle that the installation on the French Shore of new perma- 

 nent colonies could be made in conditions not affecting the French fishery, and 

 they prevailed henceforth in this unilateral affirmation to attempt to establish 

 their claims on the basis of the opinion of the crown jurists. It resulted that, 

 all in pretending to save the French rights, the British Cabinet began at this 

 time to accord the islanders concessions of land on a part of the coast expres- 

 sively reserved to the French fishery. 



The French government should have acted in a forceful way and expelled 

 without delay these new colonists. The policy of Louis -Phillipe resolved, in 

 these years of dangerous diplomatic tension, to maintain peace at all cost and 

 was opposed to this. It was then by means of negotiations that one sought to 

 work out the difference. 



Because she was agreeable to negotiations, France abandoned the claim 

 of an exclusive fishery that she had always upheld to then. 



Three successive commissions, named in 1844, 1846 and 1851, attempt- 

 ed to work out the basis of agreement for an honorable transaction. Tired of 

 war, the negotiations ended with the convention of January 14, 1857, in which 

 the principal provisions were as follows: 



"From Cape Saint- Jean to Cape Ncrmand and in five harbors of the west 

 coast, the French will have the right of exclusive fishery and the use of the 

 shore for the needs of the fishery during the season specified in Article 8 

 (from April 5 to October 5 of each year). 



,: The English subjects have the right, concurrently with the French sub- 

 jects, to fish on the east coast of Newfoundland from Cape Normand to Cape 

 Raye, except in the five harbors reserved to the French fishery, but the 

 French subjects have exclusive use of the shore for the needs of the fishery 

 from Cape Normand to Point Rock. 



"From Cape Rock to Cape Raye, Great Britain has exclusively and with- 

 out restriction, use of the shore, except in those five harbors reserved to 

 the French fishery which are included in this zone. " 



Thus France accepted, by this new arrangement of the west coast fishery, 

 renunciation, to the benefit of the islanders, of the rights she had held by 

 treaties. It is true that, in practice, the French fishermen had not used the 

 parts of the coast which were henceforth freed from her monopoly. 



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