226 Dr. Mac Culloch on the Herring. 



pal part of their diet. It is not to be supposed that the labourer of 

 the interior would not eat herrings rather than be confined all the 

 year to oatmeal, potatoes, or bread ; and if there is no fish con- 

 sumed in these districts, it must be from want of knowledge, want 

 of habit, or from defect of the internal commercial arrangements of 

 the county. 



That it would be highly advantageous, both to the people 

 themselves and to the merchants and fishermen, to diffuse that 

 habit and that knowledge, can admit of no doubt ; as it is folly to 

 say that salt fish is not a nutritious diet. That this has been neg- 

 lected, is equally apparent; and it seems particularly to have 

 been neglected by our monstrous charitable establishments, in 

 whose department it would seem particularly to lie. If it were 

 possible to excite such a demand, and that a steady one, our 

 fisheries would prosper in proportion, and can now prosper in no 

 other way, as they have overstocked the foreign market; that 

 market which cannot be extended as the home one may. But as 

 long as the fishermen are checked by their frequent losses on a 

 perishable commodity of precarious sale, they must restrict or 

 withdraw. To excite such a fashion or demand, would be an act 

 worth all bounties that ever were invented. The true object of 

 policy is not to produce the article, but to produce a sale for it. 



If we reflect on our peculiarly maritime situation, the inex- 

 haustible supply which our seas afford, and the constant occupa- 

 tion for industry here found, it has been a singularly unfortunate 

 circumstance, that those who framed the model of our Reformed 

 Church did not retain at least the weekly fast. It is a misfortune 

 that they had not been persons of more general views, and econo- 

 mists. Much was retained that was matter of indifference on the 

 great points at issue ; for the sole purpose of drawing a line short 

 of the extremity of reform. Had this also been retained, a point in 

 itself indifferent, the beneficial consequences would have been 

 very great ; as it would not only have operated by its direct effects, 

 but have tended to diffuse the general commerce of fish in the 

 interior of our own country, and the general habit of consuming 

 it. It is easy to conjecture how advantageously it would have 



