of Providence has abundantly supplied. The boundless fields are already white for the harvest; and the labourers are standing idle for want of employment-ready to enter on their task as soon as the financial prohibition is removed."" The encouragement of our Fisheries," he adds, he adds, "has been often in the view of the Legislature ; but all their measures have been defeated by the Salt laws. Bounties, too, have been added, producing little effect, and subject to great abuse; and we have yet to learn, that the effectual and impartial bounty is to leave to the husbandman, the fisherman, the manufacturer, and to all, as far as may be, the free use of that produce which the BOUNTY of Providence has bestowed in such exhaustless abundance upon the country. If we really mean that the Fisheries should prevail and prosper, as sources of internal supply, and external commerce, as providing present employment for sailors, and future nurseries for our navy. If we desire that the fisherman and cottager on the seacoast should lay in a winter supply of salt fish for themselves and their neighbours, we must no longer embarrass them with vexatious conditions, which they cannot understand or comply with; but leave them free to purchase at a cheap rate, and at the nearest shop, the SALT required for curing their fish-and to use it for the benefit of themselves and their country." "'*

It is contended by some, that there is already such a full allowance of salt, free from the duties, for the Fisheries, that the salt tax can be no discouragement; but what sailor, what fisherman or cottager can provide, what the law requires, proper and secure storehouses for keeping the salt, to be entered with, and approved by the Excise Officer? Who can cure in bulk, or can dry salt, or even barrel their fish with the precise quantity required, without running the risk of waste, which cannot easily be accounted for?+

We could give numberless instances of the severe and oppressive operation of the excise laws regarding salt.

* On the employment and subsistence of the labourimg classes, by Sir Thomas Bernard, Bart. p. 22.

+ It happens almost every year at Leith, although they have warehouses, and all conveniences, that numbers are prosecuted by the Exchequer, for not being able to account for the salt used in the curing of their fish. It happened only a year or two ago, that five fish curers were sued for penalties, to the amount of £25.000, and, although it was clear that no fraudulent purpose was intended, and which fact might have been known to the fishery officers, if they had chosen to give themselves the trouble to inquire, yet these fish-curers could get no relief until they presented a petition to the Treasury, drawn up, not by the officers of the fishery, or forwarded by the Board; but drawn up and forwarded by a private individual, who happened to understand the subject-they, of course, succeeded in being relieved from the penalties, an acknowledgment to which purpose we have seen, under the hands of these fish curers. But, if this happened at Leith, immediately in the neighbourhood of the Fishery Board itself, how little must the attention or powers of their officers be effectual to relieve the fish curers at out ports, or in the Highlands and Isles, from the grasp of the Excise?

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

We shall only give the following from the narration of a gentleman, within whose personal observation the circumstances took place :—

"In order to provide relief for the poor under the pressure of scarcity, the sum of £17,000 was raised by private subscription in the metropolis. Among other measures adopted, a contract was entered into with the North Sea Fishermen, to purchase of them, at the rate of £18 per ton, all the corned cod which they could not otherwise dispose of; and, in the year 1813, 600 tons of corned cod, and 300 tons of fresh cod, were supplied, and distributed for the maintenance of our own poor, and of the French prisoners then in England. In 1814, the pressure of the scarcity still continuing, the Committee resolved to endeavour to double the supply. They, therefore, invested the sum of £226:11s. in the purchase of salt, prepared tanks for curing the fish, and hired double the number of vessels that were employed the preceding year. When the fishermen were ready to proceed on their voyages, doubts were suggested, and notices given by the excise officer of the district, as to their allowance of salt. An alarm instantly spread among the fishermen; and although, upon the Committee's application to the Treasury, an order was obtained for the excise to make the full allowance of salt, duty free, yet the terror of pains, penalties, and Exchequer processes, prevailed among the fishermen, and most of them abandoned their contract for the season. In consequence, the expected quantity of 900 tons, or, rather (what might have been obtained, but for officious interference) the supply of EIGHTEEN HUNDRED TONS of palatable and nutritious food, for the relief of a suffering population, was reduced to 150 tons, being only a twelfth part of what might have been obtained; the Association was subjected to a heavy loss, and countless loads of fish lost to the country.

* Sir Thomas Bernard, p. 49, note.

SECTION XIV.

Circumstances resulting from the Review of the Domestic Fisheries, so far as regards Great Britain

We now shall endeavour to conclude the Review of Fisheries of Great Britain, in order to enter more fully into an examination of those of Ireland; but before doing so, we beg to state the following circumstances which have presented themselves to our understanding, from that review.

In the first place, it appears, from the earliest periods, down to the late act of the 48th and 55th of his present Majesty, that the establishment of the Deep Sea Herring Fisheries has been the object of the Legislature.

Secondly, It appears that the fish, under the denomination of Herrings, caught in the Deep Sea Fishery, which ought to be carried on in the Northern Ocean, much further north even than the Dutch usually go, possesses the following advantages:-1st, That the earliest herrings are caught in the Deep Sea; 2d, They are fuller of flesh, in more perfection, and cure better.* 3d, This fishing is certain, and can be carried on every year, although the herrings do not every season come near the particular shores or bays where they are usually expected. 4thly, That it is above all question, by far the best nursery for seamen, of all branches of the fishing trade, as has been fully proved by the advantages derived from this fishery by Holland.

Thirdly, It fully appears, from the Reports of the Commissioners of the Herring Fishery, that the bounty of £3 per ton has not been sufficient to encourage adventurers to proceed to the Deep Sea Fishery, and that therefore the bounty ought to be encreased, and that 5, or

* Report of the Committee of British Fisheries for 1768, p. 145. Shetland is 60°. The herrings are found in greatest perfection from 62° north, until the shoals are met issuing from the frozen ocean.

By a proclamation regarding the carrying on the Dutch Fisheries, dated the 20th of May 1620, it appears, the Dutch having found that the herrings caught near the shores of Ireland, Shetland, and Norway, were of an inferior kind, they forbade their vessels to fish there under a penalty of 300 florins. Groot Placaet Boeck, decl. I, p. 752, See Wakefield's Account of Ireland, vol. II, p. 118.

even 6 per ton, should be granted to vessels proceeding to this Fishery; and these bounties should most certainly be extended to vessels fitted from Ireland, which is at present excluded from any participation of the bounties either for the Deep Sea or for the Boat Fishe

ries.

4thly, That it appears, from the Reports of the Commissioners of the Herring Fishery, that the regulations they have carried into effect for obliging the herring curers to attend more strictly than they have hitherto done to the curing their herrings in a proper manner, has been attended with great advantage, and is rapidly accelerating the character of British cured herrings in foreign markets, we, therefore, earnestly recommend that a similar inspection be instituted in Ireland, and the bounty of 4s. per barrel to be also extended to herrings caught and cured in that part of the United Kingdom.*

"I have long been of opinion, that the existing regulations are very inadequate either to the maintaining of the national character of the commodity, or the prevention of frauds on the revenue. Wisdom and sound policy early pointed out to the planters of Virginia and Maryland the propriety of suffering no tobacco to be exported from that country, which had not previously undergone a thorough inspection by officers appointed and paid by the public, and stationed at the principal places of exportation. The same system of policy has been adopted in Ireland with respect to beef and pork; and I believe both countries are in no small degree indebted to this regulation for the superior quality, character, and price which their respective staple commodities bear in every part of the world. I am assured by the best authority, that there is nothing more frequent than to find, in a cargo or parcel of herrings to be exported to the West Indies, a very considerable portion wholly unfit for use immediately on their arrival, or soon after, from their being improperly cured, or packed in casks that had not. retained the pickle. If we mean to sustain a national character in this commodity, persons well qualified ought to be appointed and paid by the public, and stationed at convenient ports on the sea coasts, for the purpose of examining the fish and the casks in which they are packed, and no bounty ought to be paid until a certificate is obtained from these inspectors as to the quality," &c. &c.—Mr. Irving's examination before the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1798, p. 36.

C c

SECTION XV.

Of Rock Salt-Discovery of its Superiority for the Use of the Fisheries-Great Importance of the Act of Parliament passed last Sessions, for its being used Duty Free for the Fisheries, and for making Mineral Alkali-Also for the Food of Animals or for Manure— Further Advantages of a Total Repeal of the Tax.

SALT is an article so necessary to the comfort and convenience of life, that providence has distributed it with a liberal hand throughout every part of the world. Besides that which is held in solution by the ocean by saline springs and briny lakes, it is found in a fossil state in large beds in the bowels of the earth, in every quarter of the globe. Fossil, or rock salt, is sometimes crystalized, and as transparent as adamant, and it has, from thence, been called sal gemma; but it is more frequently found in irregular masses of a red, yellow, or blue colour. There are several mines of rock salt near Northwich in Cheshire, the first of which was discovered as they were boring for coal in the year 1670. †

The springs which are met with, both above and below the level of the Northwich bed of salt rock, are strongly impregnated with salt. This is easily accounted for, the rain water, in sinking through the ground which lies over the salt rock, at last arrives at the salt: its farther descent is in a great measure obstructed by the solid body of salt, it rests upon it, and, in resting upon the salt, dissolves it, and thus constitutes a brine spring above the level of the rock salt. The brine springs, which are found below that level, probably arise from the water which has dissolved a portion of the rock salt in sinking to that depth in the earth.

The discovery of these beds of fossil rock, which are situated about a mile north of Northwich, led to further researches, which proved successful, but it is only from the pits in the neighbourhood of Northwich that salt is procured at present. There are ten or twelve pits, the shafts of which are usually square, and constructed of timber, but

Phil. Trans. No. 66.