Twenty-two years ago the enterprise of Horace Marshall & Son produced a series of small books known as "The Story of the Empire Series." These volumes rendered a great service in bringing home to the citizens of the Empire in a simple and intelligible form their community of interest, and the romantic history of the development of the British Empire. I was asked more than twenty-one years ago to write the volume which dealt with Newfoundland. I did so. The little book which was the resul

The island of Newfoundland, which is the tenth largest in the world, is about 1640 miles distant from Ireland, and of all the American coast is the nearest point to the Old World. Its relative position in the northern hemisphere may well be indicated by saying that the most northern point at Belle Isle Strait is in the same latitude as that of Edinburgh, whilst St. John's, near the southern extremity, lies in the same latitude as that of Paris. Strategically it forms the key to British North Ame

"If this should be lost," said Sir Walter Raleigh of Newfoundland, "it would be the greatest blow that was ever given to England." The observation was marked by much political insight. Two centuries later, indeed, the countrymen of Raleigh experienced and outlived a shock far more paralyzing than that of which he was considering the possible effects; but when the American colonies were lost the world destiny of England had already been definitely asserted, and the American loyalists were able to

The motives and projects of the early English colonizers are thus aptly described by a recent writer already referred to: [14] "The colonizers were actuated by three different kinds of definite ideas, and definite colonization was threefold in its character. In the first place, there were men who were saturated in the old illusions and ideas, and intended colonization as a means to an end, the end being the gold and silver and spices of Asia. Secondly, there were fishermen, who went to Newfoundl

We have seen that many nations shared in the profits of the Newfoundland trade, but the English and French soon distanced all other competitors. The explanation lies in the conflicting interests which these two great and diffusive Powers were gradually establishing on the American mainland. It is worth while anticipating a little in order to gain some landmarks. In 1609 the colonization of Virginia began in earnest; a few years later sailed the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower , to found New Eng

In the reign of Charles I. a duty of five per cent. had been imposed on the produce of all foreign vessels engaged in the Newfoundland trade. Twenty-five years later the French under Du Mont, then proceeding to Quebec with a contingent of soldiers and colonists, established a settlement at Placentia, on the southern coast, fortified it, and made it the seat of a resident Governor. They continued, however, to pay the duty in recognition of English sovereignty. Charles II. abolished the duty to ob

The War of American Independence forms a convenient point at which to examine for a moment in passing the English colonial system, of which Newfoundland was in some sense a victim. It may then at once be stated that in the English view, as in the Spanish view, a "plantation" was expected, directly or indirectly, to contribute to the wealth of the Mother Country. If it contributed much, it was a good colony; if little, its consequence was less. Hence the English legislation throttling colonial ma

The political faculty in Newfoundland was so rudimentary at this period that from 1841 to 1843 it became necessary to suspend the Constitution. In the autumn of 1840 an election riot at Carbonear occurred, which was of such a serious character that the sympathies of the British ministry with Newfoundland affairs were alienated, and the Governor was ordered to dissolve the Legislature. He did this on April 26th, 1841, and in his speech pointed out the reason for such drastic action: "As a Committ

In 1869 [41] took place a General Election, in which great Imperial interests were involved. Governor Musgrave, in 1866, had advised Federal union with the Canadian provinces—then about to federate among themselves—and the election three years later was fought upon this issue. The result was a complete rout for the Federal party; a rout so complete that the question has hardly since reappeared within the field of practical politics. The causes of this defeat were, in the first place, economic co

The next few years may be dismissed briefly, for they were years of unrelieved melancholy, from the point of view of the public financial policy and the political development of the colony. Nor did the disease admit of a readily applicable remedy. The experience of each decade had shown more and more clearly that the colony had nothing in reserve—no variety of pursuits to support the general balance of prosperity by alternations of success. Potentially its resources were almost incalculably grea

It has been impossible in the above pages to avoid reference to the Anglo-French disputes in Newfoundland, but it seemed convenient to postpone a detailed examination of the question to a separate chapter. No apology is necessary for such a chapter even in a work so slight as the present, for the French Shore question was chronically acute in Newfoundland, and the French claims, like George III.'s prerogative, were increasing, had increased, and ought to have been diminished. The dispute is part