Newfoundland and Labrador

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New Dangers

In 1759, during the French and Indian War, the British seized French trading posts in Labrador while the two countries fought over control of North America. Three years later, France, desperate after repeated losses, captured St. John’s and held it for three months in an effort to retain Newfoundland as a North American base. When it gave up its territorial gains on the island, France also transferred control of Labrador to Newfoundland’s British governor. The peace treaty, however, reaffirmed French fishing rights on the northwestern shore of Newfoundland, and gave France possession of the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

In 1764, a year after peace was made, Sir Hugh Palliser became naval governor. He was firmly committed to the re-creation of the training ground for sailors while destroying all settlement. To this end he aided Captain James Cook, the famed British explorer, in the first marine survey of Newfoundland and Labrador. Palliser angered the French by allowing British encroachments on the island’s northwestern shore, and he irritated New England fishers by banning them from the Grand Banks. The resentments he provoked were avenged by the French and Americans in the settlement of the American Revolution. By the Treaty of Paris, ending that war in 1783, Britain gave New England fishers unrestricted rights along Newfoundland’s coasts, and France benefited in that the French Shore was redefined to include the entire western coast of the island.

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Recovery and Expansion

In 1791 a civil court system was instituted in Newfoundland, and in the following year the island’s first chief justice, John Reeves, was appointed. The power of the fishing admirals waned, as settlement slowly increased and European wars disrupted ocean shipping. In 1809 Labrador was reunited with Newfoundland, after having been separated from it since 1774 when Québec claimed it. This mainland acquisition provided Newfoundland with additional fishing territory and land teeming with wildlife. The Hudson’s Bay Company led in the exploitation of the fur trade, and fishers soon found seal hunting profitable. The expansion of the fisheries and the development of the seal-fur trade led to mass migrations from Europe, particularly from Ireland.

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Colonial Status

Britain still regarded Newfoundland as a fishing base, not a colony. The governor, although he became a permanent resident in 1817, was still a naval officer. During the early 19th century, Dr. William Carson and Patrick Morris led a movement for representative government, which would give the people of Newfoundland governmental control instead of Britain. Britain’s Parliament responded in 1824 by setting aside the Western Charter and authorizing a civilian governor and an appointed legislative council. Then in 1832, Parliament permitted a popularly elected assembly to sit with the council. Almost from the start there was friction between the two legislative bodies over financial control.

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Responsible Government

The legislative tensions, the lack of popular involvement, and the fact that self-controlled government had been granted to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island all contributed to the demand for responsible government in Newfoundland. The demand was not universal, however, and an election was held to determine Newfoundland’s future. In 1854 the opposition to responsible government, composed of Protestant-Conservatives and led by Hugh Hoyles, was defeated by John Kent and Philip Francis Little’s Catholic-Liberal coalition.

In 1855 Governor Charles H. Darling proclaimed the establishment of responsible government, and Little became Newfoundland’s first premier. Kent later succeeded him, but was dismissed in 1861, and Hoyles was called to form a new government. In the elections of that year, Hoyles received a majority of the vote, but bitter religious riots erupted. Later the political leaders agreed to draw election districts so that each religious group could gain representation in the assembly. They also agreed to make their political appointments reflect the different religious groups. The pact, although never written, soon became a tradition in Newfoundland politics.

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Confederation Rejected

During the early 1860s, Newfoundland’s government considered union with the rest of Canada. Sir Ambrose Shea, a Liberal, and Sir F. B. T. Carter, a Conservative, were observers at the Québec Conference of 1864, where the provinces discussed the details of the union. However, at the same time, Charles Fox Bennett was forming a strong anticonfederation movement. In the 1869 election, union was overwhelmingly defeated, and Bennett formed a government. He had convinced the Newfoundlanders that ties with the mainland were not realistic because of the French Shore. Bennett was defeated by a Carter-Shea coalition in 1874, but negotiations for union with Canada were not resumed until 1895.