Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1875, Volume I
No. 274.
Sir Edward
Thornton to Mr. Fish.
Sir: With reference to my note of the 26th ultimo, I have the honor to inclose copies of a dispatch and of its inclosures which I have received from the governor-general of Canada, giving more precise details as to the boundary between Labrador and the Dominion of Canada, and the position of the former possession in relation to the latter or to the colony of Newfoundland.
A map showing the exact boundary on the coast, and the assumed boundary in the interior, is also inclosed.
I have, &c.,
Lord Dufferin to Sir Edward Thornton
November 16, 1874.
Sir: With reference to your dispatch, No. 20, of June 20, and to subsequent correspondence making an inquiry On the part of the United States Government as to the [Page 644] position of Labrador in relation to the Dominion of Canada or Newfoundland, I have the honor to inclose, for the information of Mr. Fish, a copy of an order of the privy council, which contains the views of my government on the subject.
Appended to the minute are extracts from the imperial statutes bearing on the question, and a map showing the exact boundary on the coast and the assumed boundary, in the interior.
I have, &c., &c.,
Sir Edward Thornton,
K. C. B., &c., &c.
Copy of a report of a committee of the honorable the privy council, approved by his excellency the governor-general, in council, on the 12th day of November, 1874.
In a dispatch dated 20th June, 1874, from Sir Edward Thornton to your excellency, inclosing a communication from the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State at Washington, desiring to be informed whether any part of Labrador is separated from the jurisdiction of either the Dominion of Canada or that of Newfoundland.
The honorable the secretary of state, to whom this dispatch, with inclosures, has been referred, reports that the boundary-line between the Dominion of Canada and Labrador is a line drawn due north and south from the bay or harbor of Ance au Blanc Sablon, near the straits of Belle Isle, as far as the fifty-second degree of north latitude; that Labrador extends eastward and northward from that point to Hudson’s Straits.
That the division-line in the interior separating Labrador from the Dominion of Canada has only been defined as far north as the fifty-second degree of north latitude, but it has been assumed that the boundary-line in the interior would have taken the direction laid down 011 the accompanying map, which follows the height of land.
That Labrador, with the islands adjacent thereto, is annexed to Newfoundland, and under the government of that island.
Attached to the report of the secretary of state are extracts from the imperial statute bearing on the question, and a map showing the exact boundary on the coast and the assumed boundary in the interior.
The committee recommend that a copy of this minute, with map and extracts from the imperial statutes above alluded to, be transmitted to Sir Edward Thornton for the information of the United States Government.
Certified:
Clerk Privy Council, Canada.
Imperial statute 49, George III, Cap. 27, Section XIV.
And whereas His Majesty, by his proclamation of the 7th day of October, 1763, was pleased to declare that he had put the coast of Labrador from the river St. John to Hudson’s Straits, with the islands of Anticosti and Madelaine, and all other smaller islands lying on the said coast under the care and inspection of the governor of Newfoundland; and whereas, by an act passed in the 14th year of the reign of His present Majesty, entitled “An act for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec North America,” all such territories, islands, and countries as since the 10th day of February, 1763, had been made part of the government of Newfoundland, were, during His Majesty’s pleasure, annexed to and made part of the province of Quebec, as created by the said proclamation and whereas, in pursuance of an act passed in the 31st year of His present Majesty’s reign, entitled “An act to repeal certain parts of an act passed in the 14th year of His Majesty’s reign, entitled ‘An act for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec, in North America, and to make further provision for the government of the said province,’” the said province of Quebec was divided into two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, the latter including the parts of the coast of Labrador and the said islands so formerly annexed to the government of Newfoundland; and whereas it is expedient that the s id coast of Labrador and the adjacent islands (except the islands of Madelaine) should be re-annexed to the government of Newfoundland:
[Page 645]Be it therefore enacted, that such parts of the coast of Labrador from the river St. John to Hudson’s Straits, and the said island of Anticosti, and all other smaller islands so annexed to the government of Newfoundland by the said proclamation of the 7th day of October, 1763, (except the said islands of Madelaine,) shall be separated from the said government of Lower Canada, and be again re-annexed to the government of Newfoundland. Anything in the said act passed in the 31st year of his present Majesty’s reign or any other act to the contrary notwithstanding.
Imperial act 6, George IV, Chapter 59, A. D. 1825.
IX. And whereas, under and by virtue of a certain act passed in the forty-ninth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third, entitled “An act for establishing courts of judicature in the island of Newfoundland and in the islands adjacent, and for re-annexing part of Labrador and the islands lying on the said coast to the government of Newfoundland;” and of the act passed in the fifth year of the reign of His present Majesty, entitled “An act for the better administration of justice in Newfoundland, and for other purposes,” the coast of Labrador, from the river St. John to Hudson’s Straits, and the island of Anticosti, and all the islands adjacent, to the said coast, except the islands of Madelaine, are annexed to and form part of the government of Newfoundland, and it is expedient that certain parts of the said coast of Labrador should be re-annexed to and form part of the province of Lower Canada:
Be it therefore enacted, that so much of the said coast as lies westward of a line to be drawn due north and south from the bay or harbor of Ance Sablon, inclusive, as far as the fifty-second degree of north latitude, with the island of Anticosti, and all other islands adjacent to such part as last aforesaid, of the coast of Labrador, shall be, and the same are hereby, re-annexed to and made a part of the said province of Lower Canada, and shall henceforward be subject to the laws of the said province, and to none other; and so much of the said recited acts passed in the forty-ninth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third, and in the fifth year of the reign of His present Majesty, as relates to such part of the coast of Labrador as last aforesaid, and the said island of Anticosti, and other adjacent islands shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed.