CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE. HERRING-FISHERY. 195 



pany, under proper regulations, and reasonable encourage- 

 ment be given thereto ;" and this truly wise and patriotic 

 suggestion was warmly taken up by all classes. For 

 centuries the rich treasures of the deep on the Scottish 

 coasts were neglected, from the want of that guiding and 

 directing superintendence which has since so admirably 

 brought tlie treasures forth. Consequent on this royal 

 message, and the appointment of the committee of the 

 House of Commons, numerous books and pamphlets were 

 written, suggesting various plans, some of which it may 

 be worth while here to glance at. The first we shall 

 notice is, " Plans and Proposals by a Gentleman conver- 

 sant in the Fishery, Presented by E. Vernon, Esq., 1750." 

 This gentleman states, that in 1738 he joined with others, 

 and sent " three vessels and two ' jaggers to fish with 

 the Dutch, and experienced that they could cure the fish 

 as well as the Dutch, and the ' jaggers' got first to market 

 at Hamburgh and Bremen, and that the herrings sold at 

 as good a price as the Dutch, but that the success was 

 destroyed by the salt regulations ; for," he says, " he could 

 not have cleared without the Chancellor of the Exchequer's 

 (then Sir Eobert Walpole) recommendation to the Salt 

 Commissioners, to accept of such account as he could 

 give, and he, soon going out of power, and they despairing 

 of having the same altered, as they depended on his friend- 

 ship, they proceeded no further in it. " He objects, in his 

 paper, to the compelling the landing of the fish from the 

 busses, and suggests rules as to the salt and bounty on 

 the ships and herrings. He recommends the people to eat 

 them, and says, " The Dutch have much the advantage in 

 their sanction for their selling them, besides their natural 

 relish of them, sparing no cost for the purchasing the 

 first fish, and he is esteemed very un polite who does not 



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