The Story of Newfoundland

E-text prepared by a www.PGDP.net volunteer, Jeannie Howse, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page images generously made available by Our Roots (http://www.nosracines.ca/e/index.aspx)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 18636-h.htm or 18636-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/3/18636/18636-h/18636-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/3/18636/18636-h.zip)

Images of the original pages are available through Our Roots. See http://www.nosracines.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=1319

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Spelling and hyphenation inconsistencies from the original | | document have been preserved. | | | | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | | in this text. For a complete list, please see the end of | | this document. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

THE STORY OF NEWFOUNDLAND

by

THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD BIRKENHEAD Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain Honorary Fellow of Wadham and Merton Colleges, Oxford

New and Enlarged Edition

London Horace Marshall & Son Temple House And 125 Fleet Street, E.C. 1920 Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh

PREFACE

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 result has been for many years out of print. I have been asked by my friends in Newfoundland and elsewhere to bring it up to date for the purpose of a Second Edition. The publishers assented to this proposal, and this volume is the result.

The book, of course, never pretended to be anything but a slight sketch. An attempt has been made--while errors have been corrected and the subject matter has been brought up to date--to maintain such character as it ever possessed.

I shall be well rewarded for any trouble I have taken if it is recognized by my friends in Newfoundland that the reproduction of this little book places on record an admiration for, and an interest in, our oldest colony which has endured for considerably more than twenty-one years.

BIRKENHEAD.

HOUSE OF LORDS, May 1920.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 7

II. THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 22

III. EARLY HISTORY 45

IV. EARLY HISTORY (continued) 64

V. THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 81

VI. THE ENGLISH COLONIAL SYSTEM AND ITS RESULTS 95

VII. SELF-GOVERNMENT 114

VIII. MODERN NEWFOUNDLAND 126

IX. THE REID CONTRACT--AND AFTER 143

X. THE FRENCH SHORE QUESTION 171

MAPS--

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR 6

NEWFOUNDLAND IN RELATION TO WESTERN EUROPE 33

INDEX 188

[Illustration: NEWFOUNDLAND and LABRADOR]

THE STORY OF NEWFOUNDLAND

CHAPTER I

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE