6i8 A. D. 1778. 



they were Hud to be, and that thofe of the Americans were ftill greater ; 

 that 904 vefTels had been taken from them, which at the very moderate 

 valuation of ;^2,ooo each, would amount to ^1,808,000*; and if to 

 that fura the value of the fifheries, of which the Americans were now 

 deprived f , were added, it would appear that this country was already 

 benefited £2,200,000 by the war, and that the advantages flowing from 

 the war would be ftill greater in future. 



March — ^The permiffion to employ foreign feamen onboard mer- 

 chant fliips, in a proportion not exceeding three fourths of their whole 

 complement, was prolonged till the 25'" of March 1779. [18 Geo. Ill, 

 c. 6.] 



The mercantile city of Briftol, which had hitherto been without a 

 theatre -royal, had now one licenced by parUament. [18 Geo. Ill, 

 c. 8.] 



In a few days after the treaties with America had been concluded at 

 Paris, a conciliatory plan was propofed in parliament, which, it was 

 hoped, would detach the Americans from their -new allies, and induce 

 them to return to a connedlion with the mother country, which (hould 

 be much more favourable to them than their former condition. In 

 purfuance of this meafure, the ad [14 Geo. Ill, c. 45] for altering the 

 conflitution of the province of Maflachufet's bay was totally repealed. 

 [18 Geo. Ill, <:. II.] 



And the Britifli legiflature now declared, that ' the king and parlia- 

 ' ment of Great Britain will not impofe any duty, tax, or aflelTment 

 ' whatever, payable in any of his Majefty's colonies, provinces, and 

 ' plantations, in North America or the Weft-Indies ; except only fuch 



* This reafoning puts one in mind of the (lory f The mod important confcquence of the ex- 

 of the attorney, who, when his chent complained pulfion of the American fifhermtn from their pro- 

 that he was reduced to his laft guinea by his law per employment was, that almoli all the men, and 

 i"uit, comforted him with the afTurance that his ad- all the fall-failing veflels, were immediately, and of 

 verfary was reduced to his laft farthing. But, neceffity, employed in privateering : and the con- 

 _c;ranting that the ruin of fifherman, merchants, fcquence of that was, that 1,095 Briti(h vefTels, and 

 ?.nd (hip-owners, in America were an advantage to the cargoes of 13 more, were in the courfe of the 

 this nation, it was furely no recompenfe to the in- war carried into the filhinpr ports of Bofton, Salem, 

 dividual fufferers in Britain ; nor could the value Beverly, Newbur)-port, Marble-head, Gloucefter, 

 of the American prizes be near fo high as it was Haverhill, and Ipfwich, in the middle diftrift of 

 calculated. None of them were of very great va- MafTachufet's bay, as appears by the records of the 

 lue ; and a very great proportion of them were maritime court, befides what were carried into 

 fmall floops and fchooners, worth lefs than jfsoo other ports, and thofe that were retaken, which 

 for velTel and cargo. As to the filberies, that of are eftimated to have been above half as many as 

 Newfoundland and Labrador was fcarcely at all were earned into port by the captors. At leaft 

 iiicreaftd by the expulfion of the Americans from 550 fail were computed to have been taken by the 

 it, becaufe men could not be found to catch the piivateers belonging to the other two diftridli of 

 quantity of fi(h, which the American fi(hermen MafTachufet's bay ; and thofe belonging to the 

 ufed to catch : the Southern whale fifhery, being filhing ports of the other New-England govern- 

 yet in its infancy, produced but a mere trifle ; nor ments were equally fuccefsful in deftroying the 

 does it at all follow, that if there had been no war, Britifh commerce. Infinitely better had it been 

 that fifhery could have remained exclufively in the for the Britifli merchants, if the hoflihties of thofe 

 hands of the Americans, as it cannot be fuppofed men and vefTels had ftill been directed againft whales 

 that the Britifh merchants would have abflaiued and cods. \?>cc. Coxc^s View of the UniuJJIatti of 

 from it merely in complaifance to them. America, p. l^yl 



