The convention carried, besides, in Article 5, the following clause: 

 "The French subjects have the right to buy bait, herring, and capelin on all 

 the south coast of Newfoundland including the French islands of St. Pierre 

 and Miquelon, at sea or on land, on the same basis as English subjects, with- 

 out Great Britain or the colony imposing on French or English subjects any 

 kind of restriction on this transaction or on the exploitation of said bait. " 



This clause concerned especially the bank fishermen, for, at this epoch, 

 the coast fishermen had practically abandoned everywhere the line fishery to 

 fish only with the seine. It was very important for the former, for, for a 

 long time, the bank fishermen had been depending on provisioning with bait at 

 Newfoundland, especially for herring which were caught only in small amount 

 at St. Pierre and Miquelon. Until then these purchases of bait could be made 

 only on the west coast, especially at Saint George Bay where an important 

 fishery was carried on, for the local administration devised all sorts of ob- 

 stacles to these transactions outside the limits of the French Shore. They 

 could then expect to draw a considerable advantage from this freedom to buy 

 bait on all the southern coast of the island, where the herring fishery was 

 very actively practiced. 



But the negotiators of the convention, as well as the two signatory gov- 

 ernments, had not counted on the reaction which it would excite locally. 



During the negotiations, Newfoundland had received the status of a 

 Dominion. Since 1856, the island had its own government, as well as its 

 Parliament to which the convention would have to be submitted. Now, hardly 

 had the treaty become known in the island than it aroused a riot. At St. John's 

 seditious crys were raised against the queen. The British flag was attached 

 to the tail of a horse and dragged, in this humiliatory way, through the streets 

 of the city. Ther ; was even, among a majority of the islanders, a threat to 

 abandon England and to join the United States. Finally the Parliament of New- 

 foundland refused to vote the sanctions which would render the treaty effec- 

 tive. Under these conditions, the former difficulties, far from being resol- 

 ved, were only multiplied. 



France did not concern itself with the opposition of the Newfoundland 

 Parliament. It was, after all, a question of British internal order, and it 

 was the responsibility of England to settle this eventuality in honoring its 

 agreements. The French government did not fail to make known this point of 

 view, but the orientation of Franco-British politics at the moment did not 

 lead to insistence to obtain the immediate execution of the agreement, and so 

 new negotiations were undertaken. 



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