488 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



length in Part II. of the present essay. The " Committee 

 for the Grand Fishery " was definitely organized by this 

 law, and their competency was much the same as that 

 of the college of old. They were to deliver licences 

 (acten van consent} to the masters of all herring busses and 

 sale-hunters, and of such cod-fishing vessels as should 

 carry herring nets ; to swear in the masters, and two of 

 the crews of all the said vessels to observance of the law ; 

 to provide "hospital ships" (the nature of which will be 

 shown hereafter) ; to issue instructions to the captains of 

 the same, levy last-money, and advise Government on all 

 matters of fishery legislation. The working rules relative 

 to the opening and close of the herring season (June 24th 

 Dec. ult.) : to the curing, sorting, packing and further 

 handling of herring on board ; the prohibition to carry 

 herring to a foreign port, or transfer it at sea to any but 

 licensed sale-hunters, or to any one after July I5th; the 

 interdiction from selling salt and fishing implements to 

 foreigners, or from taking service on foreign fishing vessels ; 

 the police regulations for fishermen at sea, and the rules 

 relative to the hiring and payment of sailors, and the 

 terms between them and the busses' masters and owners ; 

 to the salt to be used, the packing of herring, and branding 

 of barrels ashore these several rules were all re-edited to 

 nearly the same effect, and partly in the very same terms, 

 as in the several placards in vigour under the Republic of 

 the United Provinces. Laws of many dates, and scattered 

 over many volumes of the Grand Placard Book, were now 

 assembled into one statute, in virtue of the principle of 

 codification brought into use as one of the far-spreading 

 consequences of the French Revolution. 



Of the clauses now sanctioned for the first time by the 

 law of the realm, aad most probably taken from former 



