318 PEOSB HAIilETJTICS. 



spirit of enterprise and commerce is largely promoted ; 

 by them whole nations are supplied with food ; by them 

 too aU the cardinal virtues are fostered and maintained.* 

 The propagation of herrings in foreign parts, but more 

 especially of red herringSj being thus intimately con- 

 nected with national prosperity, what honours, asks M. 

 Lacepede, are not justly his due who first taught man- 

 kind ' the art of impregnatiag their solids with sea-salt' ? 

 The name of this illustrious but cacophonous benefactor 

 of his kind was Wilhelm Deukelzoon;t and we are invited' 

 by this lively author, not only, duly- to honour him our- 

 selves, but to extend such admiration to aU princes and 

 potentates who have done homage to his memory, no mat- 

 ter what their previous history. A public visit to his tomb, 

 and a statue decreed to his memory, were sufficient in 

 the eyes of our red-herring enthusiast to whitewash the 

 Austrian Charles of all previous moral stains and deliu- 

 quencies ; and he afiectionately begs of posterity not 

 to be censorious here, but rather to get rid of any unfa- 

 vourable prejudices it may chance to have injuriously en- 

 tertained against this great ruler, ' qui deposa I'orgueil 

 de son diademe, courba sa tSte victorieuse devant son 

 tombeau, et rendit un hommage public k son importante 

 decouverte, I'art de penetrer le hareng de sel marin !' 

 The bare mention of this savoury discovery suffices not 



* 'Men-of-war and merchantmen,' writes Sir E. L'Estrange, 

 ' consume men and breed none ; the ooUier brings up now and 

 then an apprentice, but still spends more than he makes : the 

 only and common.nursery of. seamen is this fishery, where every 

 buss brings up (it may be) six, eight, or ten new men every 

 year, so that our fishery is just as necessary to our navigation as 

 to our safety and well-being. And it is well observed that all 

 princes are stronger or weaker at sea acoordiug to the measures 

 of their fisheries. 



t By others, Wilhelm Bueckelius, of about the same date, is 

 put forward as the real original herring-salter. 



