hitherto made to aid and increase our fisheries, have been made upon a wrong principle; and one which, from its nature, could not fucceed. They ought not to difcourage us, or lead to the conclufion, that aid cannot effectually and advantageously be given paft experience ought not to difcourage us, unless we find that the difficulties arife from the nature of things, and not from the manner in which the attempt has been made. То encourage poor men to work, furnish them with the neceffary implements; though boats and nets are not very expenfive, they are far too much fo for the fishermen who use them to purchafe. Next to the production of grain, certainly the fisheries require our particular care and attention, not only as an article of food and traffic, but as a nursery for producing hardy and robuft feamen, ready at all times to man our fleets, and fight our battles.

The former difficulties relative to our fisheries, appear, by the prefent political state of Europe, to be done away, and if we do not take proper measures to promote them at the present opportunity, (advantages which combined circumftances have given us at this moment,) it is our own faults.

The Greenland fishery of England has been upon the decline, whilst that of Scotland has been upon the advance the last five years, and the Southern whale fishery is ftationary: the great and increasing importation of tallow, the depreciation in the price of whalebone, and the imprefs of feamen in the time of war, have all tended to cause the falling off in the Greenland fishery. That of the South Sea is encouraged by high bounties, yet fill it has not increased, though it has been prevented from decay. With refpect to our home fisheries, the field is wide, and the profpect highly promifing, if we only embrace the opportunity, we may nearly get this trade into our own hands. As fo many volumes have been written on the fisheries, and the government of this country has fhown fufficient inclination to encourage them, it will be fufficient to point out how that may be done.

A bounty offered to a poor man to produce an article he has not the means of producing, is ufelefs. Instead then of giving bounties for fifh caught on the coaft, let boats be conftructed and let out under the direction of the minifter and elders of the parish in Scotland, or thofe who manage the poor in England, and let the fum they are to pay be juft fufficient for intereft, tear and wear, &c. Being infured against the risk of the fea, the veffel never can remain unaccounted for, and the fum paid will be fufficient to replace it, when worn out by regular ufe. There are not two hundred parishes in Scotland that touch the coaft, and probably 200 l. in each, on the average, might be fufficient, and put in activity 20,000 people in this beneficial

T 4

beneficial enterprife; and this fum might properly be applied under the responsibility of each parifh, the officers of whom, or those who have the direction, fhould be bound to fee to its proper application.

The taking off the duty on falt would be the next thing neceffary, and the way to do that, without hurting the revenue materially, would be by allowing thofe who wanted falt to cure fifh to have the quantity neceffary, duty free, on giving a bond on unftampt paper, to cure the quantity of fifh, return the falt, or pay the duty. This would do ten times better than a drawback, which does not prevent the neceflity of an advance of money, though it afterwards repays it. In fishing and curing fifh, the bufinefs is to enable people who live on the coaft to do it with advantage and with little capital, for men who have capital feck eafier employments. The utility of fisheries, for procuring food, and as a nursery for feamen, has been often mentioned, but let us confider the neceffity of keeping in the country part of thofe immenfe fums that go to Ruffia for tallow, and we fhall fee a farther reafon for this encouragement. We cannot produce more tallow than we do at prefent, without growing more butchers' meat, and that is out of the question, (doing it on purpofe,) and we cannot diminifh the confumption by any other means to a confiderable extent, but by increafing the quantity of oil and reducing its price.

Taking the fubject of fisheries in every view, then, they deferve encouragement, and this mode appears to be the best, even if the revenue fhould fuffer a little, and if fome trouble fhould be given to those who have the care of letting out boats and nets. No good is attained without fome evil, and no advantage obtained without trouble and pains; and furely, these regulations are much less complicated or difficult to execute than many of the laws about permits and licences under the excife and customs.

SOCIETY FOR FISHERIES. On the whole, although the encouragement given to fitheries, efpecially on the British coafts, may not have equalled the fanguine, and perhaps juft expectations of commercial writers, the subject has frequently engaged the attention of the legislature, and has been the occafion of a moft refpectable, though not hitherto very profperous affociation. In 1786, a number of noblemen and gentlemen were, incorporated by the style of The British Society for extending the Fisheries and improving the Sea-coafts of this Kingdom. The end and purpofe of their incorporation is declared to be the erection of free towns and villages, harbours and fishing ftations, in the Highlands and islands of North Britain, for the improvement of fisheries, agriculture, manufactures, and other ufeful objects of

industry,

industry, in that part of the kingdom, where the difperfed fituation of the inhabitants has hitherto impeded their exertions; it being hoped, that the towns will become nurseries of feamen for the defence of the kingdom, and put a ftop to the dangerous fpirit of emigration. The company are invefted with the ufual privileges and powers of a joint ftock company; and perfons who may be incapacitated by entails, minority, &c. are empowered to fell lands to them. Their stock is divided into fhares of 50l. each, and no one is permitted to hold above ten fhares. It is transferable by purchase, gift, &c.: but the fubfcribers were reftrained from making any fales of stock before the 10th of August 1789. In 1795, fome doubts respecting their right to make purchases in Scotland were removed by act of Parliament. In 1797 they had formed three establishments. 1. At Ullapool, in Loch Broom, on the weft coaft of Roffhire, the moft regular and constant refort of the herrings on the British coaft. This village in 1791 had feven houses, and in 1796 it had thirty-nine (whereof nine belong to the Society), and about forty thatched huts. Ten veffels cleared out for the bounty of fifhing in 1796. Their barrels and nets were partly made upon the fpot. The Society have built houses for fmoking herrings, and a hed for the cod fishery. Tobermory, at the north end of the island of Mull, which has the advantage of a sheltered harbour, acceffible with every wind by vefiels of any burthen; and there is plenty of ftone and wood for building. It has a cuftom houfe, at which 38 fmall veffels, meafuring 1,589 tons, entered inward, and 55, measuring 1,822 tons, entered outward. In 1792 there were 27 families, and in 1797 there were 47. And 3 at Lochbay, in the north-west part of the ifland of Skie. At each of thefe places the Society purchafed fufficient tracts of land, and laid out the ground in proper streets for building. They have alfo erected a quay or pier, a custom-house, a ftore-house, a school, and a house for a schoolmaster, bridges where neceffary, and have made roads, at every village. Many inclofures were made, and alfo confiderable improvements in agriculture, where no improvements were ever known before. The Society held out particular encouragement to the trades which are connected with fisheries and navigation; and thofe fequeftered regions have for the first time (at least for several centuries by paft) feen veffels fitted out from their harbours, and fomething like a commencement of profperity produced by industry.

2. At

All the fettlements are near to excellent fishing banks, where cod and ling are in great plenty, fo that the fettlers need never be at a lofs for a steady, and nearly invariable, fpecies of fishery to employ themfelves and their veffels. The reprefentations

of

of the directors of the fociety procured from government fome fmall mitigation of the rigour of the execution of the falt laws in favour of their fettlers. But as that is matter of favour, it may be withdrawn at pleafure. The moft folid advantage in that refpect to the poor fifhers was, that fome people, partly affifted with fmall fums lent them by the fociety, laid in ftores of falt, cafks, and other fishing utenfils, which they fell to their neighbours at moderate prices. But, from the very flow growth of the villages, there is reafon to apprehend, that the fisheries, reftricted as they are, can never afford any very flattering profpects to the people. In 1799, the governors and directors were empowered to give certain premiums, but these measures are deemed infufficient, and none is confidered adequate to the full promotion of this great national concern, but a folemn and definitive repeal of all duties on falt. Should this in happier days of finance be effected, very great refults to the wealth and ftrength of the nation are prognofticated.

FAIRS AND MARKETS. Great facilities are afforded to internal commerce in England by the establishment of fairs and markets for the fale of commodities of every defcription. The inftitution of fairs is not peculiar to England, although in this country, both fairs and markets have met with great encouragement. They were established for the better regulation of trade and commerce, and alfo for the convenience of the king's fubjects, both natives and foreigners, in obtaining fupplies of every kind. The king is the fole judge where fairs and markets ought to be kept; and therefore if he grants á market to be established in a place, which happens not to be convenient for the country, yet the fubjects can go to no other; and if they do, the owner of the vill where they meet is liable to an action at the fuit of the grantee of the market. But if no place be limited for keeping a fair by the king's grant, the grantees may keep it where they pleafe, or rather where they can moft conveniently; and if it be fo limited, they may keep it in what part of fuch a place they will. The law forbids the holding of markets and fairs on Sundays, and the folemn holidays, and declares that they shall not be kept open beyond the time fpecified in their charters, on pain of forfeiting double the value of the things fold. The grant of a fair or market, includes, without exprefs words, the right of establishing a court of pie-poudré, and of appointing a clerk of the market, who is to receive reasonable fees for marking and allowing weights and measures.

Toll payable at a fair or market is a reafonable fum of money due to the owner of the fair or market, upon the sale of things, or for ftallage, piccage or the like. Piccage is money

paid for leave to dig the ground to erect a ftall. Stallage is money paid for leave to erect a ftall, or to remove it from one part of the fair to another.

For the encouragement of trade, and to render contracts in fairs and markets fecure, by the common law, every fale made in a fair, or market overt, transfers a complete property in the thing fold to the purchaser; fo that however injurious or illegal the title of the feller may be, yet the buying is good against all men. This rule however is to be understood with fuch limitations and exceptions as infure publicity in fales, and prevent fraud and collufion between buyers and fellers. The city of London is a market overt every day in the week except Sundays, fo that a fale on any of thofe days has the fame effect as if on a fair or market day in another place. And in London, every fhop in which goods are expofed publickly to fale, is market overt, for fuch things as the owner profeffes to trade in; but in the country, the market-overt is confined to the particular place or spot of ground fet apart by custom for the fale of goods. However, where the tranfaction is perfectly fair on the part of the purchafer, though the dealing is out of the precincts of London, great allowances are made in analogy to the above mentioned cuftoms. Therefore, it feems, the property of goods may be changed, and effectually transferred to the buyer by a bona fide fale, in a fhop out of London, and that, whether the fhopkeeper is the feller or buyer, if the goods are of the kind in which he trades.

Markets are of fuch great and general utility that they can neither be difufed, nor in any degree fuperfeded. Fairs are of lefs importance than formerly, because the traders in large towns have established agents called riders, who travel from place to place throughout the kingdom, and receive the orders of country fhopkeepers, who have confequently no occafion to expend their money at fairs. Thefe meetings are, however, in no danger of being abolished; a customary, though not neceffarily attendant circumftance, is the exhibition of plays, drolls, rarities, and a general merriment, which render them the delight of the people throughout the realm, and establishments fo popular, and fo productive of honeft joy, will never be difcountenanced by a wife legislature, although exceffes may be reftricted by a vigilant magiftracy.

CONVEYANCE. The internal trade of England is alfo greatly improved by the speed, fafety and cheapnefs with which goods and perfons may be conveyed from one part of the kingdom to another. The cheapnefs is not to be estimated by the rate per mile at which travelling by land can be performed, (though even that, in comparison with other neceflaries and conveniences of