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failure, which circumscribed the growth of the British Fisheries, others 

 peculiar to Ireland may be added. Besides the necessity imposed 

 on the latter country, of following in the career of the former, two cir- 

 cumstances may have been active in drawing the attention of Ireland 

 to the resources of its waters. 1st. The neglected state of the manu- 

 factures, and consequent want of employment; and, 2ndly, the peri- 

 odical recurrence of local famines. The latter, more especially, could 

 not fail to excite the attention of the public, by the dreary contrast it 

 presented between starvation on shore, and an abundant supply of 

 food existing in the neighbouring sea ; a supply which wanted only to 

 be taken, to become available to the wretched peasantry. Accord- 

 ingly, the money raised by charitable subscriptions has more than once 

 been spent in equipping the coast population to become fishers; and 

 legislative efforts have been made to attain the same end, in a more 

 permanent way. 



"But, to look more minutely into facts, the people of northern 

 Europe, during the middle ages, were reduced to live, during their long 

 winter, very principally upon salted provisions; and the resources of 

 the sea fishery could not have been neglected in those places, where 

 fresh food of so relatively agreeable a kind, could be obtained, to vary 

 the limited and unwholesome diet. From the process of taking fish, 

 to that of curing it, the step is short and consequential." 



[A brief compendium is then given of the measures adopted for the 

 promotion of the Scottish Fisheries.] 



" Such is a very abridged history of the British Fishery Laws. It 

 remains now to take up that of the Fisheries of Ireland. The re- 

 sources of the Irish waters seem early to have attracted public 

 notice. Sir W. Temple, in a letter to Lord Essex, 1673, says ( the 

 fishing in Ireland might prove a mine under water, as rich as any 

 under ground ;' and so strongly was he impressed with this idea, that 

 he proposed that no individual should be admissible into the House of 

 Commons, nor entitled to a commission of the peace, unless he had 

 taken a practical part in the encouragement of that branch of industry. 

 So far back as the 5th of Elizabeth, an Irish statute prohibited foreign 

 vessels from fishing in the Irish seas without a license. This license 

 was taxed at 13*. 4rf. annually, for twelve- ton vessels. Philip II. of 

 Spain paid into the Irish Treasury 1,000 for liberty to fish the Irish 

 coast; and in the reign of Charles I., the Dutch were allowed a similar 

 license, on the payment of 30,000. In 1650, Sweden was permitted, as 

 a favour, to employ one hundred vessels in the Irish Fishery so little 

 was the idea then entertained, that the resources of Ireland could, or 

 should, be made available to the Irish subject. In the 7th Geo. II., 

 an Act was passed for the encouragement of the Coast Fisheries. Two 

 years afterwards, Mr. Doyle announced his discovery of a most pro- 

 lific fishing ground, the Nymph Bank, off Waterford ; and he published 

 a proposal for supplying London, Liverpool, and Bristol, with fresh 



of the European communities ; and the means adopted by some of the govern- 

 ments of other nations, are set forth in the Appendix. Documents are wanting 

 to furnish a just comparison between the cost of these efforts, and the returns ; 

 but the fact that such aid is still thought necessary to the existence of the re- 

 spective Fisheries, bears strongly against the soundness of the policy which 

 continues it." 



