Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/84

52 The colony of Newfoundland. [1010-1720 Logan. After this date Penn disappears from the history of the colony which he had founded. NEWFOUNDLAND. We have as yet said nothing of one portion of the New World occu- pied by Englishmen. Newfoundland may be looked upon as standing altogether beyond and apart from the colonial system which we have been considering. Geographically, as is obvious, it is connected, not with those colonies which afterwards formed the United States, but with Canada and Nova Scotia. It differs from these, however, in that Great Britain acquired it, not by conquest and treaty, but by right of original and continuous occupation. We have already seen how Gilbert made an elaborate but unsuc- cessful attempt to colonise Newfoundland, and how, two generations later, Baltimore renewed the attempt, but without success. Another who acquired certain territorial rights in Newfoundland was Sir David Kirke, better known in connexion with the early history of Canada. Gradually small isolated settlements were formed by Englishmen in Newfoundland, similar to those formed in the territory which afterwards became Maine and New Hampshire. Perhaps the most important of these was one formed in 1610, under a regular patent from the Crown, by John Guy, a Bristol merchant. His attempts to enforce his rights of proprietorship brought him into conflict with the west-country fishermen who resorted to the Island. The first attempt to bring Newfoundland under one definite system of administration was made under the Long Parliament. In 1653 John Treworgie was appointed, by the Council of State, Commissioner for Newfoundland. This practically meant little more than superintendent of fisheries. After the Restoration there does not seem to have been any sustained attempt to exercise authority on the island; and the French were suffered in 1662 to establish a settlement called Placentia. Fortunately for Great Britain, the resources of France, both in popula- tion and capital, were already unequal to the demands of Canada. The French could take but little advantage of the foothold thus granted them by the indifference or treachery of Charles II and his advisers; and the English claim to Newfoundland was formally confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht. It was not, however, till 1720 that the Crown, tardily following up the policy of the Protector, nominated a governor for the colony. He had authority to appoint Justices of the Peace, and he and they were bound by the Common Law of England. But not till the nineteenth century was well advanced had Newfoundland a legislature of its own.