Nothing was at that time done; but the board continued to pursue the course they had taken for obtaining information: for in August 1718, we find a very full answer given in by _Captain Passenger_ upon the whole of the subject of the trade and fishery; and in December following, the board made a _representation_ to his majesty, more elaborate, full, and comprehensive, than any performance that had yet been seen, respecting this trade and fishery; and to this they afterwards added the _heads of a bill_, to be proposed to parliament, for establishing the trade and fishery, and correcting the abuses to which it had been subject[26]. This representation, and the heads of the bill, have been lately laid before the house of commons, and are now printed by their order. [Sidenote: Claim of the Guipuscoans to fish.] About this time, the _Guipuscoans_ had set up an antient right to fish at Newfoundland; and application had been made to our court for asserting and allowing this claim. This matter was referred to the board of trade; and that board did, on the 11th of September 1719, make a _representation_ to the lords justices; in which they say, that by the fifteenth article of the treaty of _Utrecht_, the _Guipuscoans_ could claim no right, but such as they could make out by some prior title; they then recapitulated the ancient history of our discovery and possession of the island; and that by stat. 10 and 11 Will. 3. all aliens are expressly excluded from the fishery; and they conclude, that the island and the fishery are the undoubted property of his majesty, and that the _Guipuscoans_ had no manner of right to fish or trade there[27]. They take this occasion to remind the lords justices of the representation they had made last year, and of the heads of a bill then suggested for better regulating the fishery. [Sidenote: Of the Lands ceded by the French.]