CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 191 



me) a very good judgment, good wislies to the United 

 Kingdom, and a perfect knowledge of tlie subject you 

 treat ; but as you are more temperate tlian I, and, con- 

 sequently, much wiser (for corruptions are apt to make 

 me impotent to give offence, wliicli you prudently avoid), 

 ever since I began to think I was enraged at the folly of 

 England in suffering the Dutch to have almost the whole 

 advantage of our fishery just under our noses. I love 

 them for the love they have to their country, which, 

 however, is no virtue in them, because it is their private 

 interest, which is directly contrary to England. In the 

 Queen's time I did often press the Lord Treasurer Ox- 

 ford, and others of the ministry, upon the very subject. 

 I laughed to see the zeal that ministry had about the 

 fishing of Newfoundland, T think, while no care was 

 taken against the Dutch. As to my native country (as 

 you call it), I happened, indeed, by a perfect accident, to 

 be born here, my mother being left here from returning 

 to her house at Leicester, and I was a year old before I 

 was sent to England — thus I am a Teague, and an Irish- 

 man, or what people please, although the best part of 

 my life was in England. What I did for this country 

 was from perfect hatred of tyranny and oppression, for 

 which I had a proclamation against me of L.300, which 

 my old friend, my Lord Carteret, was forced to consent to, 

 the very first or second night of his arrival hither. The 

 crime was that of writing against the project of one Wood, 

 an ironmonger, to coin L.108,000 in half pence, not worth 

 the fourth part of the money, which was laid before the 

 people in so plain a manner that they all refused it, and so 

 the nation was preserved from immediate ruin. I have 

 done some small service to this kingdom, but I can do no 

 more. I have too many years upon me and too much sick- 



