THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 197 



and a form of commission for the commanders of their 

 buss-convoyers, or hospital ships. 



The former instruction, issued in lieu of the provisional 

 organisation of the year 1798, contains the following 

 principal clauses : 



The committee is to superintend the whole business of 

 the Grand Fishery (and indeed, as appears from the terms 

 of the law just mentioned, much of that of the fresh-herring 

 trade) under the supreme supervision of Government 

 (then the " Uitvoerend Bewind " or executive board of the 

 Batavian Republic). The committee is to be composed of 

 nine members, all of whom are to be privately concerned 

 in the herring-fishery, and appointed, subject to approba- 

 tion by Government, by the managing owners (boekhouders) 

 of herring busses in the towns and villages most concerned, 

 viz., four by Vlaardingen,* two by Maassluis, two by 

 Enkhuizen, and one by de Rijp. If the Grand Fishery be 

 ulteriorly exercised or extended in other towns, such towns 

 shall be entitled to appoint one further member of the 

 committee if fifteen busses be equipped there ; and if the 

 number of such busses exceed forty, they shall be entitled 

 to apply to Government for their further representation 

 in the committee. The latter body's place of meeting, 

 formerly Delft, is now fixed at the Hague. They are 

 entitled to appoint their several officers and last-money 

 collectors, and to regulate the latter's salaries and caution- 

 moneys under Government approbation. They shall 

 annually elect their chairman, and hold their first and 



* This town was not a prominent " herring town " in the earlier 

 times of the old Republic, and was repeatedly declined admission to 

 the College of the Grand Fishery. Vlaardingen's greatness in the 

 trade seems to date from the latter half of the iSth century ; it has 

 been foremost in it ever since. 



