i7<> 



A. D. 1775. 



de Gar, a cargo of at lead 10,000 filli, and proceed to the banks for a 

 fecond cargo. The veflels muft be Briti(h-built, of fifty tuns bin-then 

 or upwards, belong to Great Britain, Ireland, or the iflands in Europe 

 fubjedl to the Britifh crown, and be navigated by not lefs than fifteen 

 men, three fourths of them befides the mafter being Britidi fubjecls. 

 Thefe bounties were to continue till the 1" of January, 1787. Alfo 

 vefTels, owned and nianned as above direded, and profecuiing the 

 whale-fifhery in the Gulf of St. Laurence, or on the coafts of Labrador 

 or Newfoundland, and catching one whale at lead, were allowed to im- 

 port their oil free of duty : and five premiums of >C5oo, /^400, ^^300, 

 ^200, and £100, were allowed to the five veflels, which fhould bring the 

 greateft quantities of oil. The flcins of feals, caught by European Brit- 

 ifli fubjeds, were alfo admitted to be imported free of duty in {hips 

 legally navigated. To prevent fifliermen and artificers from being loft 

 to the kingdom by going from Newfoundland to America, the com- 

 mander of a vefiel carrying any fuch perfon to America was fubjeded 

 to a penalty of ;/(^200 : and further, to prevent the fifhermen from re- 

 maining in Newfoundland (where, as already obferved, they generally 

 became robbers or pirates) the employers are direded to retain a part 

 of their wages, to be paid them at their return home. By this ad the 

 bounties allowed to fliips employed in the whale filhery at Greenland or 

 Davis's firaits were extended to fliips fitted out from Ireland.* [15 Geo. 



To lefl"en the importation of oil from foreigners, and alfo to guard 

 againfl: a deficiency of oil, an article fo neceflary in the woollen and 

 other manufadures, by encouraging the manufadure of vegetable oils 

 at home, it was enaded, that after the i" of Auguft 1775, whenever the 

 price of Britifli rape feed fliould exceed /;i7 : 10 : o per laft, it might be 

 imported from Ireland, on paying only one fliiUing per laft, inftead of 

 the former prohibitory duty, [i ^ Geo. Ill, c. 34.] 



Thefe two ads were calculated to guard againft any deficiency of fifli 

 or oil, that might proceed from the interruption of the New England 

 fiflieries. But the fiftiery at Newfoundland muft have been defedive 

 this year by reafon of the dreadful ftorm, wherein eleven fliips, about a 



* Previous to tlie pafTing of this a£l the Irifh been found by experience to be of the mod perni- 



had fent (hips to Newfouiidlaiid, which the com- cious tender.cy ; lb much fo, that in pradice they 



modores indulged vvith >, pcrmiffion to fifh, and en- have been generally diricgardcd, and never enforc- 



tcred them in their rtpoi ts as Britifh veffcls. Being ed, except from neceffity ; and that they would 



now rdievcd from the neccflity of courting fuch a gladly throw up the bounties, if they might be re- 



prccarious indulgence, the Irifh, liberally fupportcd licved from the litigations, and other iiardihips, pro- 



by their parliament, pufhed on their Newfoundland ceeding from this aft. Indeed the bounty appears 



filhery to a great extent. (from an account made up in the comptroUer-ge- 



Some of the merchants of Dartmouth and Poole, neral's office in the cullom-houfe, figncd by Mr. 

 deputed from the whole body of merchants engaged Powell 9"" July 1 784) to have been fo little attend- 

 in the Newfoundland trade, reprefented to a com- ed to, that only one inllance occurred of its being 

 mittee of the houfe of commons in the year 1793, paid in the courfe of nine years, which was only a 

 that the regulations and rtilriiftions of this aft had payment of ^40 at Exeter in the year 1778. 



