206 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 



Agreeably to this Act, his Majesty's Charter of Incor- 

 poration was granted, 11th October 1750.* 



Great expectations were raised as to the result of the 

 undertaking; fishermen were brought from Holland by 

 the society in 1750, and the curers learned the art of 

 preparing the herrings in the best manner ; and the her- 

 rings thus cured, when sent to the continental markets, 

 were found to be of similar quality to the Dutch. But this 

 enterprise seems not to have succeeded, and the want of 

 success may be attributed to the want of practical expe- 

 rience in the directors, the distance of head-quarters from 

 the fishery, and to the death of the Prince of Wales in 

 1751, who had zealously patronised and promoted this 

 great national undertaking. It appears, besides, that al- 

 though the L.500,000 had been subscribed, only a small 

 part of the capital had been paid up.-|- 



From the only facilities afi'orded by the vagueness of the 

 Act, frauds had been attempted by some parties endea- 

 vouring to get more bounty than was legally allowed ; for 

 in 1753 it was enacted, that vessels returning from the 

 fishery with fewer hands than the law of 1750 required, 

 should not be entitled to the bounty, unless death, sick- 

 ness, or desertion, was satisfactorily proved, and that the 

 quantity of herrings sent to foreign markets should be 

 proved by the oath of the society's superintendent. 



In 1752, Dr James Silvis Dodd, President of the 

 Eobin Hood Society, published an essay on the herring, 

 pointing out the propriety and advantage of prosecuting 

 the fishery, and dedicating the brochure " to Slingsly 

 Bethel, President ; and Stephen Janssen, Vice-President ; 



* Act 23, Geo. II. cap. 24. — Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. ii. 

 p. 391. 

 t Eraser's Domestic Fisheries, p. 79. 



