it, together with the neighbouring settlements. Nesmond arrived at Placentia. From thence he made a descent on the harbour and town of St. John's. He was repulsed, and instead of going on to Boston he returned to France.

A more determined effort at conquest was made later in the same year. The new expedition was under the command of Ibberville and Brouillan, the former being at the head of a Canadian force. The garrison of St. John's was weak in numbers, and, in want of military stores, could only make a feeble resistance; capitulating on easy terms, they were shipped to England. The fort and town were burned to the ground, and the victors next proceeded to destroy all the other adjacent English settlements; Carbonier and Bona Vista alone proved too strong for them. The English Government at once commenced dispositions for dislodging the invaders; but before anything was attempted, the Treaty of Ryswick was signed in 1697. This treaty proved most unfortunate for Newfoundland. It revived in the island the same state of division between France and England which had existed at the beginning of the war. The enemy retired from the rivers of St. John's and the other settlements which they had forcibly occupied. Their claims upon Placentia and all the other positions on the south-west coast were, however, confirmed. The British inhabitants of Newfoundland were, therefore, once more left open to French attacks should hostilities be again renewed between the rival powers.

CHAPTER III.

TYRANNY BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT.

[1691-1728.]

A government of skippers-A colony regarded as a ship-The British Ministry advised to exclude women from the Island— The baneful Act of William III.-The first sea-captain arriving at the fisheries to be admiral-The population increases, in spite of unjust laws and venal judges-Interposition of commanders of the Royal Navy-Appointment of the first governor-French attacks on the country and capture of St. John's-The Treaty of Utrecht-Supremacy of England throughout Newfoundland--Fishing rights conceded to the French-Standing grievances.

THE thirty years which followed the Treaty of Ryswick constitute the darkest and dreariest period in the annals of Newfoundland. The difficulties and sufferings of the resident population were such that it seems marvellous they were not driven to settle in some more favourable region. Their miseries arose partly from the Government system of rule, and partly from the attacks of the French, who never ceased to harass their British neighbours in continuous acts of plunder and destruction. Before referring to the various skirmishes and naval engagements of which Newfoundland was the scene at this period, we propose to glance at the internal condition of the island, and endeavour to convey to the reader some idea of the social and political struggles which characterised this season of anarchy.

In the last chapter we touched upon the notable enactments of the Star Chamber in the reign of Charles I., by which it was ordained that if a person in Newfoundland killed another, or stole to the value of forty shillings, the offender was to be sent to England, and, on conviction of either offence, to be hanged. Another memorable enactment of this arbitrary tribunal was that the master of the first ship entering a harbour was to be admiral therein for the fishing season, and have judicial powers over the district. Groaning under the rule of these chance-appointed, ignorant skippers, who decided all questions regarding property and all other disputes, without any responsibility, and often for their own private benefit, the inhabitants petitioned the Home Government for the appointment of a governor and civil magistrates. The shipowners and merchants had, however, sufficient influence to prevent the passing of a measure which would have been a recognition of the island as a colony and a direct encouragement to settlers. Blinded by self-interest and a short-sighted policy, these men strenuously endeavoured to keep the country in the state of an unreclaimed wilderness; while the delusion (for such in the end it was discovered to be) of training seamen for the Navy by means of the Newfoundland fisheries,. induced the rulers of Britain to repress colonisation by legal enactments, and to attempt to drive out by harsh and oppressive laws such as had obtained a footing in the country. Another method by which the shipowners sustained their monopoly was by representing the country, in regard to soil and climate, as incapable of successful cultivation. They described it as a barren rock fitted for nothing better than a depôt for curing fish.

In the graphic language of an Under Secretary, in his. evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, at. a later date: "The island of Newfoundland had been con-sidered in all former times as a great English ship, moored

near the banks during the fishing season for the convenience of the English fishermen." The governor was regarded as the ship's captain, and all those concerned in the fishery business as his crew, and subject to naval discipline. To prevent the increase of inhabitants on the island, positive instructions were given to the governors not to make any grants of land, and to reduce the number of the people who were already settled there. A certain Major Elford, Lieutenant and Governor of St. John's, even many years after the period we are discussing, strongly recommended to the ministers of the day, "to allow no woman to land in the island, and that means should be adopted to remove those that were there." This was, indeed, going to the root of the matter. No more effectual method of averting colonisation could have entered into the fertile brain of the most rigid obstructionist.

In 1698, the British Parliament turned its attention to Newfoundland and its fisheries. The result was the passing of Acts 10 & 11 William III. c. 25. This Statute, memorable in the annals of the colony, was entitled, "An Act to encourage the trade to Newfoundland." It might, with better show of reason, have been entitled, "An Act to discourage Colonisation." All its provisions were directed to the maintenance of the island as a fishing-station. The baneful effects of this Statute of William III. were felt for nearly a century. It constituted the charter of the monopolists, on the authority of which they resisted every attempt to introduce any measure calculated to secure the rights and liberties of a resident population, or to grant them the same privileges as were enjoyed by other British colonists. Every improvement had to be fought out in the teeth of this Statute; every successive amelioration in the condition of the people was bitterly opposed as being inconsistent with the principles of this oppressive law. We have seen that, previous to this

time, the country was ruled by a set of regulations which rested on the questionable authority of orders in Council from the Star Chamber. The effect of the Statute of William was to give the force of law to these tyrannical regulations, under which the resident population had suffered so long, and to embody in an Act of Parliament (the Parliament of the Revolution), nearly the whole of the old barbarous code. No wonder that the monopolists, year after year, were loud in their praises of a Statute which secured for them complete ascendency over the resident population, who had no choice but to submit to their hard fate.

The provisions of this Act seem to us almost incredible in the present day. The fishing admirals of Star Chamber origin were reinstated, and with almost unlimited powers. Not only was it enacted that the master of the first ship arriving at the fisheries from England should be admiral of the harbour in which he cast anchor, but the masters of the second and third following vessels were to be vice-admiral and rear-admiral, the first having the privilege of reserving to himself so much of the beach as he required for his own use. The arrangement was evidently based on the principle of ignoring a resident population, and providing merely for the fishermen who annually migrated from England. Each autumn, at the close of the fishery, the admirals, and all under their immediate charge, disappeared. The inhabitants were left without even the semblance of law or order to pass the winter as best they could. As a class, these masters of fishing vessels were rude and ignorant men, utterly unfitted to be the judges in matters so vitally affecting a large and important trade. Moreover, as servants of the merchants, they were themselves personally interested in the questions which arose regarding property. They were closely identified with the capitalists who carried on the fisheries from England, and were for this and other