The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-04-29
NewfOHndland's Woes.

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A brave, sturdy, honest people strug-
Cling against injustice and oppression
will always command the sympathy of
the fair-minded everywhere and espe-
cially of very large element in the
United States. The people of New
foundland are such people. They
seem to be fighting against Great Brit
ain, Canada and France combined, and,
as they are few in numbers and limited
in the resources of national wealth and
influence, the fight is peculiarly one
sided. In their extremity they stretch
out their hands to the United States for
help, but under existing circumstances,
it is impossible for this nation to do
more than extend moral support.
The present difficulties of the island
had their origin in old Colonial times.
For centuries Newfoundland and cod
fish have been almost synonymous
terms. Its shores and waters began to
be frequented by Europeans more than
three centuries ago. The French claim
that the Basque fishermen had been
paying annual visits to the island for
fifty years before its discovery by the
Cabots. Ultimately the French and
English drove out all rivals and the
codfisheries were exclusively theirs.
Many disputes arose, but in 1886 the
French obtained formal acknowledge
ment of their rights and agreed to pay
England small tribute for the privi-
lege of landing and drying their fish
on the island. English law and policy,
till the beginning of the present GEN.
fury, were directed toward preventing
settlements on the island. No fixed
habitations were allowed. 1t was a
high crime to send women there. Pri-
vate acquisition of land was impossible.
The purpose was to preserve the island
for the fishing industry and keep its
headquarters in England. Indeed,
the island was not deemed fit for any
thing but fishing station. The French
were then as strong in this country as
England was. They held Canada and
Nova Scotia. Their rights to unlimited
fishing England did not dispute. A
place to land and dry their fish was
what they wanted, and the English king
sold them this privilege along the shores
of his island. Three times the oppor-
tunity came to England to extinguish
French rights in Newfoundland. In
the early years of the eighteenth Gen.
fury Marlborough's victories had
BUNDLED France in Europe, but the
Peace of Utrecht in 1713 left the French
in undisturbed enjoyment of their
rights and privileges in the waters and
on the shores of Newfoundland.
With the fall of Quebec, France was
stripped of her splendid colonial pos
sessions in America, but at the conven-
ton of Paris in 1853, French diplo-
macy was able to rescue the French
fisheries from the wreck of war. In
1888 the victorious American patriots
were pressing to England's lips the Bit
ter draught she had poured down the
throat of France twenty years before,
and at the convention of Versailles in
that year the fisheries question was
again considered. BY the former
treaty the " French shore" extended
from Cape Bonavista northerly and
down the west coast to Cape Ray, and
France was allowed to retain the islands
of st. Pierre and Miquelon. These
cessions were confirmed in 1888, but
the shore line was made to extend from
Cape st. John northerly and westerly
around to Cape Ray. In the waters
beyond that shore line the French were
to be allowed to fish and upon the
coast to cure their takes. Nothing in
the treaty gave them exclusive rights
or warranted the inference that the
island along their shore was to remain
wilderness; but King George in an
nouncing the ratification of the treaty
made statements which practically gave
the French exclusive rights along the
shore allotted to them, and debarred
the colonists from settling there or
making any movement to develop the