from thofe bounties.-In what follows, therefore, on this head, I must be understood as confidering only the bufs-fifhery.

On the east coast of Scotland, where the bufs-fishery has been lefs followed than on the weft coaft, and where, it is probable, the cuftomhouse-fees on that head are lefs properly regulated, I have been affured, that these fees, on the outfit of a veffel of thirty tons burthen, have in fome cafes amounted to upwards of 7 1.; the bounty on that veffel was 45. fo that here, at one haul, above one-fixth of that bounty is fwallowed up in the customhoufe. This part, therefore, is furely a mere ufelefs expenditure of the public treasure.

The numerous bonds already mentioned, are another drain that carry off a great part of the bounty, without benefiting the adven

turers.

But a fill heavier expence, which falls equally under the second head, is occafioned by the time that is needlefsly fpent each year in going to a particular port to rendezvous, after they have cleared out from another. This, on an average, cannot be accounted, when both outgoing and returning is included, at lefs than one month's delay; and as the failing expence of a bufs of thirty tons burthen is about zol. a-month, this article alone swallows up nearly one-half of the bounty.

• Another restraint which is little lefs hurtful, perhaps more fo, is, that when a bufs goes out on the herring-fishery, fhe is precluded from taking lines or hooks, or on any occafion following any other bufinefs but the herring-fifhery alone. But it often happens that thefe buffes lie for many weeks without falling in with the herrings; during all which time, the men are entirely idle, and only heaping up expences on the undertaker's head. But during that time, they are for the most part cruifing in feas where cod, and ling, fun-fifh, whales, dog fish, mackarel, and other fifh that follow the herrings, could be caught in abundance; at which work, had they lines, and were they at liberty to use them, the hands might be employed with profit to the owners, and benefit to the nation; as they would be at all times ready to engage in the herring-fishery, by laying afide their lines, and employing their nets whenever the fhoal caft up.

Another heavy expence to the undertakers, as well as national lofs, arifing from the bounty, is occafioned by the law which ordains, that all the hands must pass mufter at the customhouse, both before they fet fail, and after they return. In confequence of that regulation, the owners must give food and wages to at leaft double, for the moit part three times the number of hands that are neceffary for navigating the veffel, during the whole time of the voyage to and from the fishing-lochs, where hands could in general be obtained at lefs expence than at the port. Thefe hands are thus cooped up idle, for no purpose; and during a throng fishery, as foon as the veffel has completed her cargo, they must leave it to loiter in idleness; whereas, had they been at liberty to remain, they might have catched, during that time of idleness, perhaps the amount of many cargoes of herrings.

These are a few of the expenfive restraints to which the owners of buffes are fubjected during the fishing itself. The bars to the difpofal of their fish, occafioned by thefe laws, are not much lefs to be complained of.

$ 4

By

By the law, a veffel on the bounty must continue on the fishing ground for three months, if fhe has not fooner completed her cargo; and should she have caught nine-tenths of her cargo during the first week, fhe is not at liberty to difcharge a fingle barrel till the three months are expired; and as the first day of rendezvous is at prefent the first of Auguft (which, in the opinion of most of the fishermen, is eight or nine weeks too late), it frequently, indeed ufually happens, that before they can return to port, and get their fish ready for fale, the Weft-India fhips are failed, and must take in their loading in Ireland, which, in thefe cafes, they purchase at a higher price than they could have had them for at home: but, had the fifhermen been allowed to land any part of this cargo, as foon as they found it ready, they could in general not only reach the Clyde market in time with a great part of their herrings, but, in many cafes, they could even be fent to Liverpool and Bristol, in time to overtake their Weft-India fhips. By this means, the fishermen would not only obtain a ready fale and good prices, but they would avoid glutting the market fo much as they often do at prefent, after the West India fleet is failed.

To this head belongs another restriction arising from the faltJaws, with refpect to the fale of dried cod, and other dry fish. By the law now in force, white herrings cured with foreign or Scotch fmall falt carried out duty-free for the fishery, may be entered for home-confumption, on paying one fhilling per barrel in Scotland, and three fhillings and four pence in England; whereas ling, cod, tusk, and hake, cured with the fame falt, are not by law admitted to be fold or entered for home-confumption. But it is known by fatal experience, to be very prejudicial to the adventurers in the ling and cod fisheries upon these coafts, to be obliged to export their fish to foreign markets, where they are fold at a lofing price, when the British market had little or none of this kind to fupply their demand. This restriction on the British fishermen feems to be the more unreasonable, when it is confidered, that veffels cleared out for the Iceland or North-Sea fishery, are allowed to carry out falt dutyfree for the ling and cod fishery, and, on their return to port, are exempted from paying duty for the fish fo caught.-And why this diftinction against the fifhers on our coafts? They are, however, in this cafe, obliged either to pay the duty for what falt returns unused, or to deftroy it at the fight of the custom house-officer.-Why, again, in this cafe, fubject the fishermen to the lofs of their falt, when it might be fafely lodged under the key of the customhouse officers, till ufed?

With regard to the diftrefs brought upon individuals by lawfuits, in confequence of thefe falt laws, it would fill a volume to recite them. But, were a bare lift of the prosecutions raised on this account fince the commencement of the bounty-laws, to be produced, it would ftrike the mind of every attentive obferver with horror. In thefe cafes, the mifcarriage of a letter (and to places where no regular poft goes, this muft frequently happen), the careleffness of an ignorant fhipmafter, the mistake of a clerk in office, or other circumftances equally trivial, often involve a whole induftrious family in ruin. There are inftances of men being brought to Edin

burgh,

burgh, from many hundred miles diftance, to the neglect of their own affairs, merely because of fome neglect or omiffion of fome petty clerk in office, which, when rectified, brings no other relief, fave a permiffion to return home, with no farther load of debt but the expence of fuch a journey, and the lofs it has occafioned. But, fhould the cafe be otherwife, and fhould the mistake have been committed by the poor countryman, though that mistake originated from ignorance only, or was occafioned by the lofs of a letter in going to places where no regular posts are established, he becomes loaded with additional burdens, which in many cafes all his future industry and care will never enable him to discharge.

• From a confideration of these circumftances, fome of the best informed fishermen are much difpofed to petition Parliament rather to charge the full duty on all falt used in the fifheries, and allow a freedom from these cruel reftraints, than to grant the exemption from duty on the prefent terms t. This requeft fhews at least the ftrong fenfe they entertain of the hardships to which they are fubjected by thefe laws; though they do not feem fufficiently to advert to other confequences that would result from this measure: for, as the Dutch and Irish, and all other competitors in the fishing business, are exempted from the high duties they would pay on falt, the British fifhermen would thus be rendered unable to compete with them in foreign markets, and the fishing, under that fevere check, could not flourish. In general, however, the bulk of the fishermen seem to think of no other remedy, but to obtain an augmentation of the bounty, and fome little eafe with regard to fome of the restrictive regulations concerning falt, without feeming to think it is poffible to remove those radical evils that fo mach tend to diminish their profits at prefent, or to throw that bufinefs into fuch a train as to enable the great body of the people in the Hebrides to follow it on their own account with vigour and profit.'

After fhewing the hardships thefe poor people labour under, the very intelligent Author proposes suitable remedies, confifting

* On this occafion we may remark, that though the law is the fame with regard to falt in England and in Scotland; yet, in England, fo many eases are given to fishermen, in the execution of the law, when compared with Scotland, that it appears quite a different fyftem, and is there productive of very little inconvenience. In Scotland, many actions are carried on every year with respect to faltbonds in England, when the Committee of Fisheries required a lift of the number of actions on that account, which had been there carried on fince the law for encouraging the fisheries commenced, the return was only ONE.-Alas! poor Scotland, how are thy people harraffed!

At prefent, even falt that has paid duty, if carried out in a fhip to the fisheries, must be bonded, and is liable to the fame regulations as duty-free falt; fo that unless an exprefs law be made for difpenfing with thefe regulations, they will always be infifted on.

Foreign falt, duty-free to the Irish, Dutch, &c. costs per bufhel of fifty-fix pounds, about one fhilling; ditto paying the duties in Britain, amounts to eight faillings ;-difference as eight to one.

principally

principally of proper encouragement to fettlers in fishing towns, which will naturally promote agriculture, in furnishing fishermen with boats and tackle to fish with on their own account, and in relieving them from the impediments thrown in their way by the prefent fyftem of cuftomhouse regulations. Thefe, which we cannot trace more particularly, fhew them to proceed from a clear head and a liberal heart. We have rather chofen to exhibit the present deplorable ftate of things, the reiteration of which, we hope, will operate more forcibly toward the wifhed-for reformation, now that the fubject is feriously taken up, than to dwell upon any particular propofal to that end.

N. ART. IV. A Differtation on the SEXES of PLANTS, tranflated from the Latin of LINNEUS, by JAMES EDWARD SMITH, F. R. S. 29. Nicol. 1786.

8vo.

THE

HE Public has already been fenfible of no fmall obligation to the ingenious tranflator of the work before us, for his enabling them to perufe, at a cheap rate, Linnæus's Reflections on the Study of Nature. But we are doubly indebted to him in the prefent inftance; for the original performance was grown fo fcarce, that a copy was not to be had under half a guinea: and yet no work can appear more valuable to the Linnæan student, than that wherein his great mafter establishes the principle upon which he conducted his botanical labours. It was unfortunate, therefore, to be debarred the opportunity of confirming himself. in the truth of what he has fo juftly admired; an impediment that has hitherto been found in every one's way, but which, at length, is removed by Mr. Smith, and in a manner that will ever do him credit as a well-informed naturalift, and as a fit poffeffor of the Linnæan cabinet +.

Spallanzani's late weak attack upon the fexual fyftem, was, to all appearance, a challenge given to the difciples of Linnæus (or rather to Scopoli, his brother profeffor), to defend their favourite champion. With great fagacity Mr. Smith obferved, that Spallanzani had never attended to this principal work of Linnæus-an omiffion actually unpardonable! For what can justify troubling the world with notions and partial experiments, wrong and incorrect in themselves, when better and more accurate information is to be procured? In the prefent ftate, therefore, of the difpute, Linnæus's own differtation on the fexes of plants will be the beft anfwer to Spallanzani. Whoever wishes for a curious detail of facts, proving the truth of the fexual fyftem, would do well to read this little tract repeatedly; the experiments are ftated fo accurately, and they are so many, that the most wary mind will be induced to give full affent to the Linnæan dogma. The matter contained in the preface, in *See our Review, vol. LXXIII. p. 313. + Ibid.

the

the notes, and the appendix of the tranflator, fo completely obviates all modern doubts, that we must confider this work as of first-rate excellence.

That the reader may be informed of the occafion of Linnæus's writing this differtation, we will tranfcribe a paragraph or two from the preface; at the fame time obferving, that we could prefent him, on this occafion, with more curious matter, but, in justice to the work, we will not injure it by partial details.

In the year 1759, the Imperial Academy at Peterfburgh offered a premium of an hundred ducats, about fifty pounds fterling, for the bat differtation on the fexes of plants; in which that doctrine was either to be confirmed or refuted by new arguments and experiments, befides thofe already known; an hiftorical and phyfical detail being prefixed of all the parts of a plant fuppofed to have a fhare in im pregnating and perfecting the fruit and feed.

6

So good an opportunity of vindicating his favourite hypothefis could scarcely fail to be embraced by Linnæus. Indeed, the queftion was thought to have been propofed by the academy on purpose to draw forth the ideas of this illuftrious man, then in the zenith of his reputation and abilities; who was not only better acquainted with the fubject, but also more interested in it than any one else. He wrote the following differtation, which was honoured with the prize in a public affembly of the academy, September 6, 1760.'

Mr. Smith gives an account of the attacks made on Linnæus by Spallanzani and by Adanson; but for particulars we refer to the preface itself.. G....h.

ART. V. A Sentimental Journey through Spain; written in French by the Marquis de Langle, and tranflated from the Paris Edition that was burnt by the common Hangman. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5s. fewed. Hooper. 1786.

THE Author of this work, the original of which hath not yet paffed under our review, is fo very eccentric in his manner, and fo extremely fingular in his opinions, that to convey a proper idea of his abilities an extract must neceffarily be given from the performance itself.

The lands round Madrid are wafte and uncultivated. Spain is not populous: and fo much the better. The people are more comfortable. There are by far too many people in the world." Too many people in the world! This is furely a mistaken notion. We always understood that the numbers of the people conftituted the riches of a state; though this, indeed, depends on their being well employed.

People exclaim against the celibacy of the clergy; yet foldiers are not allowed to marry. Those who contribute to the glory of the state are not fuffered to add to its power. This elafs of men, who perifh in fuch numbers by wars, toils, and hardships, that they must be replaced every twenty years, are

debarred