THE NEW SOCIETIES 95 



and encourage it. He therefore advised the king to 

 give the fisherj^^ " his signall and expresse Countenance, with 

 the Pubhck authoritj^ of the ParHament," and suggested 

 that the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland should also be 

 roused to take an interest in the scheme to be brought 

 forward. 1 



About the same time as Dr Worsley made this report, 

 two public spirited men, named Smith Watson and Simon 

 Watson, inspired bj^ the same desire to see their fellow 

 countr\Tnen enter upon the business of the fishery, set forth, 

 in great detail, " The Charge and Profitt of one Busse of 70 

 Tunes imployed one year in the ffishery, by wch may be 

 computed the charge of a fleet," ^ showing, in much the same 

 sanguine fashion as Charles I. had done thirty years before, 

 that the fishing industry was far more profitable than men 

 imagined, and that it was folly to continue to pay Dutch 

 fishermen to catch fish for Enghsh consumption. 



These same enthusiasts also drew up " A Modell of a Con- 

 troll for the Royal Pishery," in which they proposed that the 

 employees of the Association should be paid according 

 to the results of the fishing, " for this wiU stir them up 

 to be more industrious, when the more they work for his 

 Ma. the more they get to themselves." It would also, they 

 ver}^ pertinently remarked, be a check upon fraud, since no 

 man could defraud the Association without defrauding 

 his fellows, " who will therefor for their owne interest, look 

 one to another." The fishermen were to be paid according 

 to the catch of their o-^ti vessel, while the general officers 

 of the companj^ were, they proposed, to be paid according 

 to the takings of the whole fishing fleet. The estimate 



1 Dr. Worstlej-es Proposall about the Herring Fishing of these three 

 Kingdomes : Additional MSS. British Mioseum; Sea Fisheries, Temp. 

 Car. II. 



2 Sea Fisheries, Temp. Charles II. ; Additional MSS. British Museimi. 

 See Appendix. 



