The state of the Northern Whale-Fishery will be seen from the following account of the number of fish and produce of oil, brought by the ships of the several ports of Great Britain from the Greenland and Davis' Straits Fishery, in the year 1814: his Majesty's navy ; whom, with the apprentices and unprotected seamen employed, make a total of 4000 effective men subject to impressment.
It is further stated by the owners, that at the ter mination of the war, no less than 148 valuable ships, comprising 50,000 tons, and engaging a capital of L.2,000,000, were employed in the Greenland and Davis' Straits fishery ; that the provisions for the voyage amount to about L.600 for each ship, form ing a total of L.90,000, wholly furnished from our own markets, affording encouragement to agricul ture, as well as to the various descriptions of trades men through whose hands the provisions are sup plied; that the whole produce, therefore, of the fish ery may be considered as gain to the country.
As, however, foreign ships may be sent to the fishery on more moderate terms than the English can supply theirs, and as the King of the Nether lands has offered considerable bounties to ships pro. ceeding to the northern fisheries, all hope appears to be cut off, that Englishmen will ever be again per mined to contribute to the supply of foreign mar kets with whale oil, but must look to the consump tion of Great Britain alone in future. It is there fore suggested by the ship-owners, as some relief, that the enormous quantity of foreign rape-seed, which has recently been imported into this country, nearly duty free, should be checked ; and that, by laying a sufficient duty on the importation of this article, the protection of government would be be neficially extended at once to the encouragement of the British agriculturist, and the relief of the Green land trader. No reasonable objection, it is stated, can be made to such a measure, unless from a mis taken apprehension with regard to its effects on the price of woollen cloths; which is so inconsiderable, that a duty of L.12 per last on rape-seed would not occasion an advance of more than about one farthing and a half per yard on narrow cloths ; and that, in fine cloths, Gallipol oil alone is used. This appears to be reasonable enough ; but the own ers of the whale-fishing ships had another and a more formidable rival in the market in the lighting of the streets of London and other great towns with Gas. ft was stated, that for every three parishes in the metropolis thus lighted, five whole ships would be thrown out of employ; and that if all the parishes in London, Westminster, and Southwark, should be so lighted, it must entirely put an end to a trade which employs 10,000 seamen, 2000 apprentices, and 2000 landsmen, training constantly to the sea, and which affords occupation to 100,000 individuals.
The Gas Company say, on the other hand, that the expenditure of coal will amply compensate, in a national point of view, for any loss the Green land trade may sustain, by the additional quantity of shipping employed in bringing the coal to the metropolis. This, however, is an exaggerated state ment; but as *hale-oil is now employed for so many more purposes than formerly, and even in the ma nufacture of gas, the lighting of the streets, even if general, will probably not injure the fishery to any great extent ; though the lighting of shops and pri vate houses, should the practice become general, The statutes of 35th Geo. III. c. 92, and 42d Southern Geo. III. c. 18, regulate the proceedings, and pre- Whale" scribe the conditions on which premiums of L.100 Fishery. to L.400 may be claimed by each of sixteen shies employed in this fishery. Though less important, in a national point of view, than the northern whale fishery, the number of ships and seamen employed in it are very considerable. They are fitted out mostly from London, and amounted, in the year 1815, to 107 ships, comprising 32,100 tons, and manned with about 3210 seamen ; and their return cargoes were calculated to be worth about L.1,070,000 steeling.
The returns of the two fisheries, then, will stand as under : These statements of the productive value of the foreign British fisheries may probably approach pretty nearly to the truth ; but the reports of the home fisheries are too vague to afford any thing like an accurate estimate. If we should take the 120,000 tons of fish said to be imported annually into the metropolis, at the low average rate of threepence a.• pound, and allow, for the rest of the consumption in the British Empire, only one-half the quantity consumed in and exported from the capital, and half a million for the export produce of the herring and cod and ling fishery, we shall have the produc tive value of the whole as under The Greenland and South Sea fisheries, L.1,800,000 The Newfoundland fishery, . . 1,500,000 The herring, cod, and ling ditto for exportation, . 500,000 The consumption of London and re exportation, . 3;000,004 Ditto of the rest of Great Britain, 1,500,000 L.8,300,000 And, on a general review of the number of seamen, landmen, and boys employed in the fisheries, that is to say, on the water, it would not appear to be too. high an estimate to reckon them at 120,000. (K.)