and being so fortunate as to find vast abundance of this bait, on or about the 10th November, both vessels returning to the harbour, procured, in a few hours, as much bait as would last for months, the two well-boats proceeded immediately to the fishing, and returned on the 23d day of November, with a considerable quantity of live cod. It having been resolved by Mr. Lee and the Directors, that the London market should be first tried, instead of the Bristol, the fish in the Mary was shifted on board the Phoenix, and at 12 o'clock, P. M. Captain Fraser came on board, and we sailed for the London market, and after rather some heavy gales, arrived at Gravesend on the 29th, at 11 o'clock, A. M. after a passage of four days and eleven hours. Same evening, part of said fish was sent up to Billingsgate, and the remainder two days following, amounting to 35 score of live cod, and 66 score of salted, as far as deponent recollects, which he was informed sold at good prices, and considered equal in quality to any brought to the London market that sea

son.

Captain Fraser remaining in London, as deponent was informed by him, to endeavour to procure subscribers to enlarge the capital of the Nymph Bank Company, the deponent proceeded to Waterford, where he arrived at or about the 18th December, after a passage of five days. That the deponent proposed to proceed to the same part of the Nymph Bank, where he had before found abundance of fish off the islands of the Saltees, but was ordered to proceed to the westward, and to remain at anchor on the Bank: That deponent obeyed said orders, and remained at anchor with the Phoenix for a week in very stormy weather. He caught here a few cod, very large, but not in the abundance he found off the said islands: That several meetings were held after his return, to take into consideration the dissolving said company, but that in the beginning of May, the Directors having not renewed their orders for his fishing on such stations as they had before ordered, deponent went out and fished on the ground he before had found the fish, and in May, June, and the beginning of July 1804, carried three voyages of live fish to Bristol, which were carried there in great perfection, although the season of the year was unfavourable to the keeping of fish in well-boats, and sold at good prices, the city of Bristol also giving a bounty of 2s. 6d. per cwt. on the fish so brought to the market, just as they were brought from on board.

That said company was dissolved in the end of July, and the well-boats ordered to be sold, on which deponent returned to England.

That deponent, from his experience in the North Sea Fishery, and in the fishing aforesaid, on the Irish coast, can have not a doubt but that wellboats would make up voyages of fish with great advantage, particularly from the discovery of abundance of whelks for bait, before mentioned, and that such voyages of live cod could be carried to the Bristol market with profit to the undertakers.

The above declaration was drawn up at Mr. Lawrie's office, Berwick Wharf, the 24th day of May 1806, the declarator, Isaac Dunnage, not being at leave to go to Wesminster to be examined respecting the above, and said de

elaration was presented to Mr. Davis at the public office at Shadwell, to be sworn to by said declarator; but its being presented at eight o'clock, and past office hours, the affidavit would not be taken.

The said Isaac Dunnage, therefore, signs his hand to the same as the truth, and nothing but the truth, and will, on his return to London, be ready to make oath of the above, and to give such further information as may be desired respecting the said fishing and the circumstances connected therewith.

Thomas Shank, witness.

ISAAC DUNNAGE,

NUMBER II.

LETTER to the Right Honourable CHARLES ABBOT, Speaker of the House of Commons, containing an inquiry into the most Effectual Means of the Improvement of the Coasts and Western Isles of Scotland, and the Extension of the Fisheries. With a Letter from Dr. ANDERSON to the Author, on the same Subject.First published in

: 1803.

SIR,

HAVING, under your authority, and that of your Right Honourable Successor, in the administration of Ireland, had the honour of being employed in forwarding similar measures respecting that part of the United Kingdom which are at present under the consideration of Parliament with regard to Scotland, I flatter myself it will be deemed only a continuation of my duties, if I should endeavour to explain circumstances which have very forcibly presented themselves to my understanding respecting those important measures in both parts of the British empire.

The same wise policy, which has induced Government to take up the generous purpose of relieving the distresses, and removing the grievances in one district of the empire, will, no doubt, on the same principles, be in due time transferred to another, to which the fostering care of Government is equally necessary to be extended.

The improvement of the Western Coast and Isles of Scotland, and the improvement of the maritime counties in Ireland, ought to go hand in hand. Their deprivations and their capabilities are in many points equal and similar. The same seas offer to their inhabitants the means of subsistence and of wealth; yet both are in a manner deprived of the harvest which nature has brought to their doors. The rage of foreign conquest, the rage of foreign colonization, the ignorance of domestic resources, the inattention to science and the true principles of political economy, have for centuries left neglected a maritime frontier, unequalled in its extent, inexhaustible in its power of forming additional nurseries of seamen for our navy, on the force and strength of which our existence as a nation, our command as an empire, almost wholly depend.

b

Called

Earnestly, it is to be hoped, that enquiries so happily begun, under the prospect of peace, will not be discontinued under the pressure of war. upon to chastise insolence unparalleled, to assert the liberty and independ ence of Europe, and to avenge the prostrate rights of nations, we shall, under the protection of Divine Providence, make our strength be felt without lowering the sails of our commerce, or checking the career of internal improvements and the diffusion of domestic prosperity.

During the time of a wide and expensive war, the cessation from which has only been, ut cineres suppositos doloso igne, exertions in all kinds of internal improvements have been carried on with a spirit of enterprise before unknown in the history of the island. From the measures proposed by His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer, even in the contemplation of the renewal of that warfare, it seems determined to extend those improvements to every corner of the kingdom. The zeal of every man will gratefully second this wise and praiseworthy purpose, and cheerfully aid his endeavours în putting an end for ever to all local distinctions and dissatisfactions; which in the remote parts of the kingdom have occasioned many of the inhabitants already to dispose of their little property, and embark with their wives and children for America. Others, and in great numbers, are said to be preparing to follow their example. Soon will, however, this condescending attention reconcile them to their native soil, by leading them to such an intermarriage with it, which will secure to them the fruits of their labours; and by promoting their industry, and encouraging their exertions, particularly in the fisheries, the inhabitants will be enabled to acquire subsistence for themselves and their families at home. In return for this attentive kindness, there will be at command not only multitudes of loyal and brave soldiers, but additional nurseries of seamen will be created for our navy, and new sources of wealth and force will be produced to the empire.

The year 1803 may, it is to be hoped, be justly hailed as the distinguish ed æra in the annals of this country, for the commencement of domestic colonization. Talents infinitely more adequate to advance this glorious purpose than any thing to which I can pretend, will no doubt be called forth by an occasion so important, and a task so delightful. I can only say with Corregio, io son pittore. If the circumstances adduced, or the reflections contained in these pages, shall have only the effect of attracting more general attention to the subject, and of directing investigation to important objects, the purpose will be effected of presuming to address you, SIR, on topics which have long been the objects of your attention, and which it has been your anxious desire should lead to plans which ought to be extended to every part of the United Kingdom.

Those who had at former periods obtained grants of land in America, it is well known, spared no pains to attract settlers from every country in Europe where the inhabitants, labouring under oppression, might be thought desirous of finding new abodes. It is not, therefore, to be supposed they would neglect making their application to the inhabitants of the Highlands and Isles

See Sir John Sinclair's Hipts to the Select Committee.

of Scotland, who, on the dissolution of their ancient clanship, were exposed to exactions to which they were not accustomed, and to an increase of rents which they thought had no bounds. The dissatisfaction and discontent which these circumstances produced, induced these people to lend too willing an ear to the emissaries from America. The emigration spread from vale to vale, and from island to island. Of the numbers who went away I have heard very extensive reports *; but whether, like other numbers, these may have been magnified, it is certain that the numbers have been great. Those who went first being desirous to have their friends to join them, sent back flattering accounts of the climate, the soil, and the produce of their new country, which spread the infection so wide, that at the breaking out of the war with the Colonies, almost the whole of the inhabitants through a great part of the north-western Highlands and Isles were on the wing for America. This war suspended for a time the course of emigration, but the disposition was not changed; the return of peace again held out temptations for the people of those countries to try their fortune beyond the Atlantic. The late war with France operated as a further check upon transporting themselves to the New Continent. But the spirit of emigration is now spreading with an almost irresistible force, that is fast approaching to the point of a complete depopulation † of a district of great extent, and in some respects of inestimable value to the British empire. The power and riches of a state, it has always been admitted, depend upon the number and industry of its people, and the force it can command when required; nor can the prosperity of a state by any means be so essentially augmented, as by an increase of that population on which the effect of that force may chiefly depend; and hardly any greater evil can arise than the destruction of such a source of population, or its being driven to swell the power of foreign nations.

"In the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, population, especially since inoculation for the small-pox has been introduced, encreases as fast as in North America; and unless new means of occupying the people are from time to time pointed out, perpetual emigrations, it is said, must be the necessary consequence +."

That, however, new means of occupying the encreased population of these countries may be found in the application of their industry to the fertility of

I have been informed, that Lord North had an account of 63,000 people having left the Highlands of Scotland for America. This seems far from being improbable, as 25,000 people are said to be likely to leave these countries in the course of the present year.

+ See report of the Committee of the House of Commons, 13th of May 1803.

Edinburgh Highland Society Hall, 28th March 1803.

His Grace the DUKE of ARGYLL, President of the Society.

Right Honourable the EARL of DUMFRIES, Vice-President in Office, in the Chair. The Committee of the Highland Society, to whom it was remitted to consider and report on the subject of emigration, have already, at two periods, laid before the Society what information they had acquired, with the observations which seem to arise out of it. It is now, a third time, the opinion of the Committee, that they are called upon to furnish some further details on the subject. It assumes more and more a serious and alarming aspect. The Highland emigration can no longer, by any person, be contemplated as an immaterial circumstance; far less (as some have thought it) beneficial in the way of draining a surplus population.

It is fast approaching to the point of complete depopulation of a large district of the kingdom; a fact which the Society cannot, without betraying its duty, fail to submit to the wisdom of Government. See Hints to the Select Committee, by Sir John Sinclair.