250 FISHERY. 



with all thefe circumftances, great quantities of 

 them are fent to the Weft Indies, to the preju- 

 dice of the Irifh fifhery. Another mifchief is, 

 that though there is a bountv of 2s. 4d. a barrel 

 exported, yet fuch are the fees, and old duty, 

 that the merchant receives only I id. h and that 

 fo clogged and perplexed with forms and delays, 

 that not many attempt to claim it. The draw- 

 back on the foreign herrings is paid immediate- 

 ly on the merchant's oath, but the Irifh bounty 

 not till the fhip returns, with I know not how 

 many affidavits and certificates from confuls and 

 merchants, it may be fuppofed perplexing when 

 it is not claimed. The Scotch have a bounty 

 per barrel, on exportation, which they draw on 

 fending them to Ireland, by which means they 

 are enabled, with the afliftance of a higher 

 bounty on their veffels, to underfell the Irifh 

 fifhery in their own markets, while the Irifh 

 merchant is precluded from exporting to either 

 Scotland or England ; this is a very hard cafe, 

 and certainly may be faid to be one of the op- 

 preilions on the trade of Ireland, which a legifla- 

 ture, acting on liberal and enlarged principles, 

 ought to repeal. The trade of fmoaking her- 

 rings, which is confiderable in England, might 

 be carried on here, to much greater advantage, 

 if there was wood to do it with. In the Ifle of 

 Man they have fmoak houfes, fupplied with 

 wood from Wales ; it is a ftrange neglect, that 

 the landlords do not plant fome of the mon- 

 ftrous waftes in this country with quick grow- 

 ing copfe wood, which would, in five or fix 

 years, enable them to begin the trade. The 



plenty 



