1755.] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTOUY. 7.> 



The effect of the bounty of 40s. per ton, toge- 

 ther Avith the other inducements held out to spe- 

 cuhitors in tlie wliale-tislicry, was such, that imme- 

 diately after the passing of this last act of Parlia- 

 ment, the Briti.sh whale-fishery began to assume 

 a respectable and hopeful appearance. The mer- 

 chants of Scotland began to participate with the 

 English, in the year 1750. 



The combined fleets of England and Scotland, 

 in the year 1752, amounted to forty sail ; in 1753 

 they were increased to forty-nine sail ; in 1754 to 

 sixty-seven sail * ; in 1755 to eighty-two sail, and 

 the year following to eighty-three sail, which was 

 the greatest number of ships employed in the trade 

 for the tAventy years following, w^hile the least num- 

 ber amounted to forty sail during the same period. 



The British v»'hale- fishery being now pretty firm- 

 ly established, the Legislature wisely directed its 

 attention to the method of effecting, by this com- 

 merce, the m.ost important national advantages ; 

 hence, at the same time that it encouraged the ad- 

 venturers in the trade by bounties, it took the op- 

 portunity of occasional enactments to introduce va- 

 rious new regulations, as well as limitations to the 



* The number of ships on the fishery this yeai* (1754)^ from 

 different nations, was 227; viz. 67 British; 132 Dutch ; 17 

 Hanibuvghers ; 6 Danes ; 2 Bremeners ; 2 French ; and 1 

 Embdener. — Scots Magazine, 1754. 



