fish. G75 



Lewis. In the next reign, an association of the three king- 

 doms for a general fishing within the hail seas and coasts of 

 the king's dominions was ruined by the civil wars. On the 

 Restoration, a well-digested plan was formed, and the mea- 

 sures taken went on prosperously, till the sovereign withdrew 

 his bounty, when that association likewise broke up. A few 

 years after, (1667) another company was formed, and it was 

 then found necessary to have busses built in Holland, and 

 mostly manned with Dutch fishermen ; but that country 

 being then at war with France, almost all of them were cap- 

 tured, under the pretence that they belonged to the enemy, 

 and the company was ruined. A farther attempt w r as made 

 in the same reign, which the death of the king, and the suc- 

 ceeding troubles, also frustrated. Soon after the Revolution, 

 the subject was resumed, but the influence of Dutch councils 

 with King William, together with his continental wars, again 

 frustrated its success. The Scottish Parliament also made, 

 about this time, several enactments in favour of fisheries, but 

 the Darien establishment supervening, diverted the attention 

 of the public, and their measures proved of no avail. 



At length the princes of the house of Hanover took up the 

 question, and in 1749 a company with large capital was 

 formed, and the newspapers undertook to show that it was 

 easy to deprive the Dutch of their monopoly in the herring 

 fishery. For the first time, the contest between the two 

 nations assumed the form of honourable rivalry in the pur- 

 suits of industry. But the Dutch, in possession of the 

 foreign markets, frugal in their habits, and thoroughly expert 

 in the business, produced fish which had the reputation of 

 being the best, and maintained their superiority, till the 

 capital of the company gradually sinking, even when an ad- 

 ditional bounty was granted by government, they finally 

 obtained the contested monopoly. 



In 178G, Mr. Dempster, then a member of the House of 



X x2 



