The eternal question of the Newfoundland fisheries is crop- ping
up again. The French have a right, under the treaty which ceded the island, to fish on part of the coast, and use it to catch herring for bait in their deep-sea cod-fishing. There are not enough herring caught, and so they buy more of the New- foundlanders. The latter, however, are so irritated by French conduct, that they try to prevent the sale by legislative enact- ment ; and failing, wish England to repudiate the treaty, but keep the island. If we will not do so, the islanders, says a correspondent of the Times, will agitate for annexation to the United States. That is nonsense, as the Protection system in the United States would cost them far more than the Bait Laws now do ; and although the irritation is ap- parently genuine and deep, we can see no remedy for it. The French do not exceed their treaty rights, except in buying articles it is forbidden to export, and nobody ever went to war on that account. The matter is complicated by the fact that the French Government is not contending for the fish as pro- perty, but in order that the fishermen may have something to do while waiting to be employed in the French Navy. So far from the fisheries being profitable, they cost the French Treasury many thousands a year, paid in bounties to the fishermen for their patriotic zeal in catching cod, which other- wise would not pay them. Divided jurisdiction is always troublesome, but divided jurisdiction with the French is worse than joint ownership in a horse with no written agreement as to right to use it.
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