Our Fishery Rights in the North Atlantic

treaty of peace. These rights had been confirmed and defined by the charters of New England, and when the British Parliament passed the act of March, 1775, to prohibit the colonies of New England from fishing on the banks of Newfoundland, sixteen peers, among them Lord Camden and Lord Rockingham, protested against the passage of the act, " because the people of New England, besides the natural claim of mankind to the gifts of Providence on their own coast, are specially entitled to the fishery by their charters, which have never been declared forfeited." American Archives, 4th series, 1774-1775, vol. 1, page 1690. By the charter of Massachusetts Bay of 1691 the province of Maine and the territory of Acadia or Nova Scotia, with the lands (now New Brunswick) lying between Nova Scotia and Maine, were annexed to Massachusetts, and the northerly and easterly limits of the province of Massachusetts under that charter extended to the river St. Lawrence, and down the river St. Lawrence and along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Although in 1758 a separate constitution was granted to Nova Scotia the charter of Massachusetts Bay of 1691 continued in force, and Massachusetts and Maine remained under it and were entitled to the benefit of its provisions until the Revolution. Charters of Massachusetts Bay of 1627 and 1691 ; Charters and Constitutions of the U. S., part I, pages 932-954; John Adams to W1n. Tudor. Adams' Works, vol. x., ...