fing letters to him, defiring him to do what he could to obtain. a remedy.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt answered, that firm intentions were entertained of removing this evil, but it would be impoffible to do it in the prefent year, as it was intended to be united with another measure of the greatest commercial importance, the confolidation of the customs: an inquiry and inveftigation into that fubject was then going forward under the direc tion of Government, and he expected it would be completed previous to the clofe of the fummer, and meet the difcuffion of the Houfe at the commencement of the enfuing feffion.

The Houfe having refolved itfelf into a Committee of the whole Houfe, to take into their confideration the state of the Greenland fifhery, Mr. Rofe in the chair,

Mr. Jenkinfon lamented over the impoffibility of making Mr. Jen(what in his opinion was indifpenfable) propofitions to the kiafon. Houfe, without expreffing a marked difference in opinion from both the Commiffioners of the customs and the merchants. The former in their answer to the Privy Council, had recommended, that no farther bounties fhould be granted on the Greenland fishery; it appearing to them, that the trade was in fo flourishing a condition, that it could go on without bounties; and the merchants, on the other hand, afferting in pofitive and direct terms, that unless the prefent high bounties of 40s. a ton were continued, the trade would be ruined and loft to the country. It was his lot to stand as an umpire between the two parties, and what he fhould recommend to the Committee would be a middle propofition, which he was perfuaded in his own mind, would neither injure the fishery, nor take away too large a fum of the public money, and he would ftate to the Committee his reafons for being of that opinion. Mr. Jenkinfon then proceeded to relate to the Houfe, the rife, progrefs, occafional decline, revival, and prefent ftate of the Greenland fishery, which he confidered as an important object of trade to the country. He gave an account of the bounties which had from time to time been granted, the effect they had produced, and their prefent operation. The condition of the bounties at prefent paid, were 40s. per ton for five years; 30s. per ton for five years; and 20s. per ton for five years. The fum this country had paid in bounties for the Greenland fishery was no less than one million two hundred and fixty-five thoufand four hundred and fixty-one pounds; and the last year only, we had paid ninety four thoufand eight hundred and fifty eight pounds. At prefent, there were one hundred and eighty-eight fhips fitting out; and he had that day at noon heard of two more: now as the two were fitting out at Exeter, a port not much accustomed to fend fhips to Greenland, it gave his mind an impreffion

O 2

impreffion that the bounty was the fole object, and not the benefit of the trade. But however there were upon the whole this year, one hundred and ninety fhips fitting out; which, at fix hundred pounds a fhip, made the bounties amount to 114,000l.: this was a fum worthy the attention of the Committee.

He now purfued the hiftory of the trade, and the bounties granted for its encouragement; obferving, that we had been driven out of the trade in 1618, but tried it again in 1672: in 1733, a bounty of 20s. was granted; in 1740, a bounty of 30s.; and in 1750, a bounty of 40s.; and now he had no fcruple to confefs, that the profperous ftate of the Greenland fishery took its date from the 40s. bounty, and had gone on flourishing ever fince. He ftated, that a faving voyage was, when a fhip brought home thirty tons of oil, and one ton and a half of bone. That at prefent, with a bounty of 40s. per ton, we paid 60 per per cent. on the cargo; this he conceived to be an enormous fum for the Public to give: he said it appeared, that more ships were employed in the trade when the bounty was at 30s. than when it was at 40s. But though the trade increased during the late war, it was not owing to the 40s. bounty; for the great cause of it was, that we got rid of powerful competitors in the fishery (of the Americans) which gave us, as it were, a monopoly of the trade. He stated the arguments in favour of a 40s. bounty, and the arguments which weighed in his mind very forcibly against it; and inferred from thence, that a bounty of 30s. per ton would be fufficient. He meant to propofe that bounty; but in the bill he fhould bring in, he fhould introduce certain regulations, fuch as, that three-fourths of the seamen on board fhould be British; and he fhould reduce the fize of the fhips upon which the bounty fhould be paid; the alterations to take place two years after the expiration of the prefent year. He ftated an average of the last five years against an average of five of the twenty-feven years, the firft being 16,197 tons, the latter only 3,193 tons: and faid, that during the laft five years Scotland had fallen off; but that Scotland and England both produced together, 380 tons more when the bounty was at 30s. than when at 40s.

He spoke of the examinations of feveral refpectable perfons before the Board of Privy Council, who certainly had given. their opinions decidedly in favour of the 40s. bounty: but refpectable as they were, he must be allowed to declare, that when men gave their opinions upon a matter in which their own intereft was materially concerned, their opinions had not quite the fame degree of weight with him, that they would have on any other fubject.

He

He now moved, "That 30s. per ton be allowed on flips "in the Greenland whale fishery."

This fpeech gave rife to a long, defultory debate, which we have not time to do more with than to treat of very generally.

Mr. Dempfier remonftrated on the ill-chofen time for pro- Mr. Demp pofing a measure likely to affect the British fisheries, juft fter. after the clofe of war, when fo many of our brave feamen were turned afhore out of the navy. He affured the right honourable gentleman, that the fisheries could not exist unlefs the 40s. bounty were continued, and expreffed fome furprize at his having declared, that he did not believe the gentlemen concerned in the Greenland fifhery when they had afferted as much. Those gentlemen were men of as much honour as any men in the kingdom, and men of as much credit. He conjured the right honourable gentleman, not to œconomize the public money fo rafhly as to rifque the existence of the Greenland fishery, which was one of the most important branches of our commerce as well as one of our best nurferies for our feamen. For his own part, he was not terrified at the picture which the right honourable gentleman had drawn; if it had coft the nation a million, it was a million wifely laid out: the arts of peace were delightful; it had taken fifty years to expend a million in the eftablishment of a moft valuable fishery; one month's war would have coft us the fame fum, perhaps more: a hundred thoufand a year was a trifle for fuch a purchase; and criminal indeed was the idea of proceeding in a matter of fuch infinite importance without first inftituting an inquiry in that Houfe. An examination of witneffes before the Privy Council, was not, in his opinion, a fufficient ground for that Houfe to found its prefent proceedings upon for one at leaft, he was refolved to oppose a meafure of which the tendency feemed fo exceffively injurious.

Mr. Jenkinson faid, that the honourable gentleman had Mr. Tenmiftated his argument: nothing which he uttered could be kinton, conftrued into any imputation on the gentlemen who had been examined; he had not faid, he did not believe the gentlemen; that he had merely laid claim to what he would still plead for a right of faying, that when gentlemen were examined on matters that affected their own interefts, their opinions had lefs weight with him than more difintereffed opinions had. As to finding fault with the examination before the Privy Council, in preference to that Houfe, the parties concerned had petitioned His Majefty, and His Majefty naturally referred the petition to the Privy Council.

Mr. Dempfter urged an examination at the bar of the Houfe previous to proceeding farther.

Mr.

Mr. Wilberforce.

Mr. Wilberforce, declared that he underflood the right honourable gentleman to mean nothing more than that when he received opinions from perfons interefted in the effect of thofe opinions, they had lefs weight with him than if they had been delivered by perfons perfectly difinterefted. His honourable friend had faid, an hundred thousand pounds was a trifle not worth confideration compared with the importance of the Greenland fifhery. That might be true, but it did not apply to the queftion, becaufe, if the motion was carried, an hundred thousand pounds would not be faved to the Public, but a fourth of it. He, for one, fhould place much confidence in the declaration of fome of the gentlemen concerned in the Greenland fifhery: he knew them to be refpectable men, endued with integrity and honour: the fishery was a lucrative fource of national commerce, and our having acquired the fupplying Germany with the greatest part of the oil confumed there, a fingular and effential advantage. It ftruck him, that an expedient might be found, which would enable Government to pay the 40s. fhillings per ton bounty, and nevertheless lower the expence fo as to lighten it very confiderably to the Public.

The Greenland fishery was certainly an object of confiderable importance to the country, whether viewed as a nufery for feamen, or as a beneficial fource of commerce. The fishery however, and the fending out of fhips to Greenland, was rather to be regarded as a fpecies of gambling than any fort of regular trade: the rifque was great, and the gain fometimes proportionably lucrative; but it was almost entirely a matter of chance. He knew gentlemen who had acquired very capital fortunes in that way; there were others, however, who, no doubt, had been great lofers by their adventures; in fact, fcarcely any fingle fortune of a fmall compafs was equal to the embarking alone in it. The fouthern fifhery was indeed ftill more of a lottery; for there, whoever was fuccessful, and obtained the bounty, might be truly faid to have gotten the 20,000l. prize. The expedient that he would propose was, that Government fhould lay a duty of 50s. per ton upon all oil imported; this would reduce the bounty money in cafes where it amounted to 150l. to 751. and thus enable Government to continue the 40s. per, ton bounty at one half the expence only which at present it coft them. Mr. Wilberforce wifhed the bounty were to be paid on fhips as low as 150 tons burden, as that would effectually affift the purposes of commerce. He thought it due to the application which the right honourable gentleman feemed to have beltowed, and the knowledge which he had obtained on the fubject, to give him credit for the rectitude of his po

Litions,

fitions, and the expediency of his motion. Trufting, therefore, to the right honourable gentleman's affurances, that after a full inquiry and deliberate inveftigation of the fubject, he was convinced that the Greenland fifhery was likely to continue profperous after the expiration of the next year under a reduced bounty of 30s. per ton, he fhould meet his several propofitions without reluctance, and vote in their favour.

Lord Penrhyn ftated the cafe of the people of Liverpool, Lord whofe thips employed in the Greenland fishery had always Penrhyn. been increased in number under the 40s. bounty, and decreased when it was lower.

Mr. Beaufoy expreffed his wifhes, that the general benefit Mr. Beauof the individual adventurers in the Greenland fithery could foy. be reconciled to the public policy of the State, by fo apportioning and diftributing the bounties, as in a great meafare to remove the rifque of the trade, and render it lefs like a lottery, by insuring to every adventurer a certain portion of receipt, to go in difcharge of his outfit, whether he had the good fortune to take a capital prize or not.

The Lord Advocate contended for the continuance of a 40s. The Lord bounty, arguing, that to reduce it would be a breach of faith Advocate. with those who, on the belief that the 40s. bounty would

be continued on, had fitted out fhips and entered into the

Greenland trade.

Mr. Huey having expreffed his appehenfions left, in fpite Mr. Huffey of his anxiety to fave the money of the Public, he must vote for the continuance of the 40s. bounty, advised the Committee, before they confented to the prefent motion, to be well affured it would not prove dangerous to the fishery. If it was at all likely to put fo important an object as the Greenland fishery in danger, and from what he had heard he feared it would, it ought not to be hazarded.

Lord Mulgrave confidered the Greenland fifhery as an Lord Mulobject of trade merely, and not as a nursery for feamen: grave. the Newfoundland trade, for inftance, where raw landmen were taken aboard, and after they had been long enough to know a little of feamanship, get into other fhips and learnt. more, was a nursery for feamen, but the Greenland trade was different; the men on board Greenland fhips were neceffarily the best and most experienced feamen we had, for no others would do; and therefore the Greenland fifhery could not be called a nursery for feamen.

Mr. Alderman Hammett doubted whether or not the right Mr. Ald., honourable gentleman was not upon that day doing as much Hammett. harm as he believed his argument and the measure propofed

by him the preceding day would do good. He contended for

the continuance of the 40s. bounty, and

recommended the