72 BARRA, FISHERIES. 



arising from the nature of the salt laws. To favour the 

 fisherman and promote the commerce in the salted com- 

 modity, and at the same time to check the frauds that 

 might follow the misapplication of the salt allowed for 

 that purpose, have been found matters of considerable 

 difficulty. Complaints, as may naturally be expected, 

 abound on this subject, and, to remedy the real incon- 

 veniences, many regulations have at different times been 

 adopted, with more or less success. It would here be out 

 of place to attempt a description of these several regu- 

 lations ; as the subject is not only trite, but the changes 

 have been so numerous, that to notice them would lead to 

 a considerable length of discussion. To render the High- 

 land fisheries effective, has been an object of much anxiety, 

 and if the expedients have sometimes failed, they have 

 at least been intended to reconcile the more local interests 

 of the country with the general advantages of the empire. 

 Similar attempts have been made to temper those regu- 

 lations which, in the case of these remote islands would, 

 if rigidly enforced, produce inconveniences without any 

 adequate advantages to the revenue. The restrictions, 

 on the private manufacture of candles are of this nature. 

 Such restrictions can be attended with no inconvenience 

 in a commercial country, but they would here be oppressive 

 as well as useless j as there is no market for the sale 

 of the raw, or the purchase of the wrought material, and 

 the former would of course become unconvertible. A 

 discretionary power is therefore judiciously intrusted to 

 the officers in this department of the revenue, by which 

 this manufacture is permitted for domestic use, under 

 certain regulations capable of checking abuse without 

 producing inconvenience. 



As grievances, real or imaginary, must exist every 

 \yhere, it will not be a subject of wonder if many other 

 complaints are found among these remote islanders; al- 

 though a patient submission to inconveniences and pri- 

 vations, forms no small feature in their character. It 

 i< ]>lea*inu; however to observe, that they arc never directed 



