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Commons, again drew the attention of the public to the state 

 of the British fisheries. A committee then formed came to 

 a resolution, that the best mode of improving and extending 

 this great source of national wealth, was to encourage the 

 inhabitants living nearest the seat of them to become fishers; 

 and it being found that the north-western coasts of the British 

 Islands, though abounding with fish and with fine harbours, 

 were destitute of towns, an act was passed for incorporating 

 certain persons, by the style of the British Society for ex- 

 tending the fisheries, and improving the sea-coasts of Great 

 Britain. The Isle of Mull, Loch Broom, the Isles of Sky and 

 Cannay, were named to have towns built upon them, but no 

 success deserving the name resulted from these measures. 



The Rev. J. L. Buchanan, in his general view of the fishery 

 of Great Britain, shows, with a thorough knowledge of his 

 subject, that the want of a successful result, after so many 

 endeavours, can be ascribed to known and not irremediable 

 causes. After animadverting with some severity on what 

 might have been termed the Dutch-Scotch fishery, which 

 occasioned disputes little creditable to either party, he pro- 

 ceeds to show, that the stations marked out by the managers 

 of the British Fishing Society were not the most eligible for 

 the purpose intended ; that the best practical fishers were 

 not at these stations ; that the fish was more abundant and 

 of superior quality at other places ; and that costly buildings 

 for collectors, comptrollers, and even large public houses, 

 might have been dispensed with, at least until the prosperity 

 of the enterprise justified the expense. But the greatest evil 

 arose from the government itself. While holding out boun- 

 ties and drawbacks to encourage the fishery, a duty upon salt, 

 and perplexing regulations respecting its foreign or home 

 manufacture, the quantity allowed to be stored, and respon- 

 sibility respecting the diminutions incident to it from lique- 

 faction, obstructed the general prosperity, and thwarted in 



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