object of relief of the industrious poor it certainly 

 must be considered ; but it is one which well pro- 

 vides for them, while it opens a source of benefits 

 to all. The re-instatement of the labouring classes 

 of society, tog-ether with the tendency which the 

 efforts of the Committee had, nearly from their 

 outset taken towards assisting and obtaining assist- 

 ance from the fisheries, are circumstances which 

 thus have necessarily directed their late operations 

 almost exclusively to that important purpose. 



It would seem on a cursory view to be a fact, 

 for which no adequate or satisfactory reason could 

 be given, that while so many of the inhabitants 

 of this country are commendably employed in toil- 

 ing hard for the cultivation of the earth, in the 

 laborious exertions necessary from opening and 

 enriching the soil, gathering in the harvest, and 

 attending to all the detail of labour, even to 

 the ultimate distribution to the consumer, with an 

 ample deduction of expense from their hard-earned 

 profits an ample supply of excellent nutritious 

 food surrounding our shores, and in a state always 

 ready for our use, should be Left comparatively un- 

 touched, or left for strangers to possess, and some- 

 times to collect for us to purchase from them ; and 

 that this should be the case when the taking of 

 it secures to us collateral benefits of inestimable 

 importance, and forms a main support of that 

 national dignity and pre-eminence vvliich is de- 

 rived from the excellence and bravery of our 



