of
India; but the American statesman will not fail to see in the conduct
of England towards her American colonists in this transaction a
justification not alone for the Declaration of Independence, but also
for that Monroe doctrine which, in its fullest application, will
prevent the interference of any European power in the affairs of any
part of America, not excluding Newfoundland. The Treaty of Paris, in
1763, which made Great Britain practically master of North America,
produced no change in the position of the 13,000 settlers then in
Newfoundland. For them the London government cared nothing. The
provisions of the treaty, by which France gave up Canada to England,
only served to emphasize more strongly the injustice done by England
to her Catholic population, both in Ireland and in Newfoundland.

In 1719 the Irish Privy Council, all tools of England; actually
proposed to the London government that every unregistered priest or
friar remaining in Ireland after the 1st of May, 1720, should be
castrated; and, although the English ministers did not accept this
suggestion, they adopted one that such priests should have a large P
branded with a red-hot iron on their cheeks. It can be hardly wondered
at that the more honest Irishmen sought refuge from such infamies
either in foreign service or in the colonies; and many of them came to
Newfoundland, only to find that the Church of England spirit of
persecution was rampant there also.

Every government official was obliged to abjure the special tenets of
Catholicism. In 1755 Governor Darrell commanded all masters of vessels
who brought out Irish passengers to carry them back at the close of
the fishing season. A special tax was levied on Roman Catholics, and
the celebration of mass was made a penal offence. At Harbor Main,
Sept. 25, 1755, the magistrates were ordered to fine a certain man L50
because he had allowed a priest to celebrate mass in one of his
fishing-rooms. The room was ordered to be demolished, and the owner to
sell his possessions and quit the harbor. Another who was present at
the same mass was fined L20, and his house and stage destroyed by
fire. Other Catholics who had not been present, were fined L10 each,
and ordered to leave the settlement. These infamies were not altered
until the Tory government was humiliated by the victory of the United
States and their allies. But even then the Newfoundland settlers were
taught that England treats her loyal colonis