63 The HISTORY of the laft injuftice, the other claufe ought to have been revived, in order to prevent it for the future. But by giving an abftract of thefe laws for enabling disbanded foldiers to provide for themfelves, I did not intend to find fault with them: My intention was only to fhew, how much this precedent has been improved and extended fince it was first introduced, in order to fhew how cautious we ought to be of introducing any precedent that may, by improvement or extenfion have a bad tendency. Whether this precedent has had, or can have a bad tendency is a queftion that admits of very great doubt, because many gentlemen are of opinion, that the privilege enjoyed by most of our corporations, of not admitting any man, who is not a freeman of their corpora on to follow any trade or mercantile bufinefs within the fame, either as a mafter or journeyman, is of very bad confequence both to themselves, and to the publick in general, as it enables both mafters and journeymen to combine together, the former in endeavouring to reduce the rate of wages lower than the current price of the neceffaries of life can admit of, and the latter in endeavouring to raise the rate of wages much higher than fuch price can require; and it enables the rich masters in every fort of business to combine in raifing or keeping up the price of the commodities they deal in, both to the merchant exporter, and to the home confumer. Thefe practices, and the difficulty and expence ftrangers find in getting themselves admitted freemen, often enables fome market town in the neighbourhood to rival them in their trade, and at laft to ruin their corporation, so that the mafter of the most reputed inn comes to be the chief magistrate, and his hoftler begins to be a man of fome confequence in that corporation, efpecially if it be a parliament city or borough. This they fay, has already been the fate of fome of our boroughs, and may foon be the fate of fome of our cities; for when trade begins to travel from one place to another, or even from one county to another, it is very difficult to stop her journcy, and ftill more difficult to procure her return; from whence they argue, that it would be a favour done to our cities and boroughs themselves, as well as to the na tion in general, to lay every corporation in the kingdom open, to any man that would pay a small fee for his admiffion; not higher than any journeyman might afford to pay. And as to the ftatute of the 5th of Queen Elizabeth, which enacts, that none which hath not ferved as an apprentice seven years in any art or myftery now used, shall ufe the fame, or fet any other to work therein, which hath not fo ferved out that time, in pain to forfeit 40s. for every month; they say, that daily experience fhews how inconvenient it is to trade; for how often have weavexatious fuit brought against a tradesman, against whofe skill or honefty in the art or myftery he ufes no objection can be made, but only this, of his not having ferved an apprenticeship in that art or mystery, when in truth the real cause of the action is on account of his working or felling cheaper, or his being a more compleat mafter of his bufinefs, than most of those that have served an apprenticeship of feven years in the fame bufinefs. The parents of the poor, we know, chuse trades for their children, as the parents of the rich chufe wives and husbands for theirs, not on account of any liking or inclination the child has for the trade they chafe for him, but on account of fome whim, fome conveniency, or fome intereft of their own. The child muft ferve out his time to that trade, by good luck it is not, like the wife or hufband, for life, though this law has endeavoured to make it fo, but during that whole time, he is perhaps applying every fpare hour to fome other art or myftery, for which he has naturally a fine genius and a strong inclination, and by the time his apprenticeship is expired, he has probably acquired fo much infight into that art or myftery, as makes him an useful fervant to a master in that bufinefs, where he foon compleats himself in the knowledge or practice of what his genius leads him to, and which he has found an opportunity to make himself compleatly mafter of: Why should we by law render it impoffible for a man to follow the bufinefs which his genius leads him to? Such men are more apt to improve any fort of manufacture, and to acquire it a great character, than thofe that have been bred to it in the common routine of an apprenticeship, without any particular turn to that bufinefs more than to any other, 1764. The HISTORY of the laft other; and the misfortune is, that it is against fuch men that the force of this law is moft generally directed, because their fuperior merit excites the envy of their rivals in the trade, which in trade, as well as every other rivalfhip makes their rivals take every advantage for preventing their fuccefs: But furely the law ought not to countenance, much less furnish the means for the indulgence of fuch a paffion. On the other hand, it is argued in favour of the freedom of corporations, that the fale of our manufactures of all forts at the foreign_markets, depends upon the character they have acquired, perhaps more than upon their intrinfic value or low price; for the foreign merchant, who buys large quantities of them for the retail trade in his own country, has not time to examine narrowly into the quality and quantity of every piece he purchases: He buys them because they are English, perhaps because they come from fuch a city, corporation, or county in England, and depends upon their being of the fame quality and quantity with thofe ufually brought from thence. The foreign confumer again is no judge of the intrinfic value of what he purchases, but having had experience of the goodness of fuch an English manufacture, he buys it upon the retailer's affuring him that it is an English manufacture of the fame fort with what he has had experience of, on which account he prefers it, though he might have, at a lefs price, a manufacture of the fame kind, but made in fome other country. This is fo well known to the manufacturers and mechanicks of other countries, that they endeavour to imitate our manufactures as near as they can, and to pafs them off as being truly English: Nay, with regard to our watches, the watchmakers of Geneva, and fome other parts beyond fea, have gone fo far as to put upon their watches the very name of fome of the most famous watchmakers in London. What has this general good character of our manufactures been owing to, but the power which the magistrates of our cities and corporations have over their freemen, and the care they have hitherto taken to difcourage or profecute any freeman that should be concerned in the making up, or in the fale of any fort of cheating manufacture. If you thould put it into the I power of every man that pleased to make himself a freeman of any city or corporation he pleased, it would be impoffible for our magiftrates to take any fuch care, the confequence of which would be, that many cheating forts of manufactures would be fent abroad, whereby all our manufactures would foon lofe the character they have acquired, and would perhaps gain fuch a bad character, as would prevent their being fold at any foreign market. We know how we are, we know what has been the confequence of the regulations we are now under, but we cannot know what may be the confequence of fuch a general new regulation, as that of abofishing the freedom of all our cities and corporations. Whilft we are well, do not let us, like a Hypocondriack, run the risk of destroying ourselves by aiming to be better. As to combinations amongst masters or journeymen, we feldom hear of any among the former, among the latter we often do, but we hear of them as often in counties and market towns as in corporations: Wherever, or amongit whomfoever fuch combinations happen, they are against law, and if they are not punished, it is the fault of those whofe duty it is to detect and profecute. And as to the statute of the 5th of queen Elizabeth, it was made in a reign famous for wifdom and public fpirit. Every law made in that reign deferves the most serious confideration before it is altered, much lefs abolished, With refpect to every fort of manual labour or bodily exercise it is well known, that people become the more dextrous and adroit at it, the more early in life they begin the practice; this probably was the reafon for making a feven years apprenticeship neceflary, that parents might be induced to put their children out to fome trade whilft they were young; and that our mafters of every fort of manufactures might always be able to find journeymen or workmen of dexterity of hand, or agility of body, according as the nature of the manufacture might require: This it is that has brought our manufactures to fuch perfectionas make them fought after all over the known world and to continue them in the fame perfection, this is now as neceffary as it was in the reign of queen Elizabeth; therefore the law ought not to be abolished; but fome method may be contrived for intitling a man to ufe a trade, 70 The HISTORY of the laft Seffion of Parliament. a trade, to which he has never ferved apprentice, if he can fhew, that he has made himself expert, and compleat mater of the bufinefs he proposes to follow. Thus it appears that the question relating to the freedom of coporations, and likewife that relating to the ftatute of the 5th Elizabeth, are queftions of a very doubtful nature: If both these regulations be neceffary for fupporting our trade and manufactures in their prefent flourishing condition, it must be allowed, that the encroachment first made upon them prefently after the reftoration was a bad precedent, and that the oftener it is repeated, or the farther it is extended, it is fo much the worfe. I fay, firft made upon them, becaufe, though the ftatute of 5 Eliza beth was not exprefsly mentioned in the faid act 12 of Charles II. yet the former was by the latter tacitly repealed fo far as related to the officers and foldiers included in that act. But whatever may be faid of this precedent with regard to our trade and manufactures, I will fay, it is now become a good precedent for the recruiting fervice in time of war, efpecially if by proclamation allmen fhould be indulged with the privilege of lifting to ferve only until the end of the war; for numbers of tradefinen and mechanics may be induced to lift, by the hopes of having the freedom of all the cities and corporations in Britain and Ireland laid open to them, as foon as the war is ended; and this benefit to the recruiting fervice may hereafter be of some weight, in preferving the privilege of our corporations, as well as the privilege of thofe who have ferved out the whole time of their feven years apprenticeship to any trade or employment mentioned in the faid ftatute of the 5th of queen Elizabeth, at leaft fo far as never to be incroached on, but for the benefit of foldiers, marines, and mariners, disbanded at the end of 2 war. For explaining the next act I am to give an account of, I must take notice, that fo long fince as the 19th of Henry VII. that is to fay in the year 1504, a law was made by which it was enacted, that none fhall bring, or caufe to be brought, into England, any filk wrought, by itself or with other ftuff, out of England, in ribbons, laces, girdles, cauls, corfes, tillucs, or points, in pain Feb. to forfeit the fame, or the value thereof, to be divided between the king and feifor or profecutor. This act, which had no other title but that of, filkworks, was formerly, it feems, futfcient to prevent the importation of any of thefe forts of foreign manufacture, because there was fo little to be got by a clandeftine importation, that the fole rifk of forfeiting the goods was fufficient for deterring people from making the attempt, even with refpect to thefe forts of goods which may be ftowed in fo little room, and confequently to cafily concealed and finuggled into the retailer's fhop, where they could not be feized, because it was feldom poffible to prove their being foreign manufacture. But of late years the multitude and weight of our taxes has fo raised the price of every fort of home manufacture, above what a foreign manufacture of the fame kind may be bought for, and the profit to be got by fmuggling has been thereby fo much increased, that the risk of having the goods feized and forfeited before they could be lodged in the retailer's hop, was become not at all fufficient for deterring people from attempting to fmuggle thefe forts of goods; and as the goods, when feized were not to be deftroyed or re-exported but fold here at home by the king's offi cers, fuch quantities of them were clandeftinely imported and fold here at home, that we were in great danger of entire ly losing this fort of home manufac ture. For this reafon Mr.Bagot, on the 11th of March, ftood up, and moved, that the faid act of the 19th of Henry the VIIth might be read, and the fame being read accordingly, he moved, that leave might be given to bring in a bill, for explaining, amending, and rendering more effectual the faid act; which was ordered accordingly, and that he, to gether with fir Roger Newdigate, Mr. Archer, the lord Grey, fir Charles Mordaunt, Mr. ferjeant Hewett, and fir William Beauchamp Proctor, fhould prepare and bring in the fame. May 22d the bill was prefented to the houfe by fir Charles Mordaunt, read a first time, and ordered to be read a fecond time, which it was on the 23d and committed to a committee of the whole houfe, after which, as the bill was absolutely neceffary for the prefervation of that branch of our home mapufacture, though it contained a new incroachment 1764. Spanish Fibery on the Coaft of Barbary. incroachment upon our constitution, it paffed through both houses in common courfe, and without any oppofition, and received the royal aflent at the end of the feffion. [To be continued in our next.] An Account of the Spanish Fibery on the From Mr. Glafs's Hiftory of the Canary "THE number of veffels employed The method of fitting out a bark for the fishery is this: The owners furnish a veffel for the voyage, and put on board her a quantity of falt fufficient to cure the fish, with bread enough to ferve the crew the whole voyage. Each man carries his own fishing-tackle, which confifts of a few lines, hooks, a a little brass wire, a knife for cutting open the fish, and one or two ftout fifh ing-rods. If any of the crew carry wine, brandy, oil, vinegar, pepper, onions, &c. it must be at his own expence, for the owners furnish no provifion but bread. The nett fum arifing from the fale of the fish, after deducting the expence of the falt and bread before mentioned, is divided into fhares, a certain number of which are allowed to the owners for their expence in fitting out the vessel; the reft are divided among the crew, according to merit: An able fisherman has one thare; aboy landman, or one not experienced in the fithery, half a fhare, or a quarter, according to his abilities. The patron or mafter of the bark fhares equally with the able fishermen, and the owners allow him alfo one fhare out of their's, for his trouble in taking care of the bark. The place on the coaft of Barbary where they go to fith, is according to the feafon of the year. This fifhery is bounded on the north by the fouthern extremity of Mount Atlas, or by the latitude of 29 degrees north; and on the fouth by Cape Blanco, in the latitude 71 of 20 degrees 30 minutes north: The whole length of the fea-coaft fo bounded is about 600 miles. In all this extenfive tract there is no town, village, or fettled habitation; the few wandering Arabs who frequent this part of the world live in tents, and have neither boats, barks, nor canoes: The king of Morocco's cruifers never venture fo far to the fouthward; for were they to attempt fuch a thing, it is not probable they would be able to find the way back to their own country, fo that the Canarians have nothing to fear from that quarter. In the spring-feafon the fishermen go on the coaft to the northward, but in the autumn and winter to the fouthward; becaufe in the spring the fish frequent the coafts to the northward, and afterwards go gradually along the fhore to the fouthward. The first thing the fishermen fet about when they arrive on the coaft, is to catch bait; this is done in the fame manner as we do trouts with a fly, only with this difference, that the rod is thrice as thick as ours, and not tapered away fo much towards the point. The line is made of fix fmall brass wires, twisted together; the hook is about five inches long, and is not bearded; the fhaft is leaded fo as it may lie horizontally on the furface of the water; and the hook is covered with a fifh's fkin, except from where it bends, to the point; then getting within a quarter or half a mile of the thore, they carry fo much fail as to caufe the bark to run at the rate of four miles an hour, when two or three men throw their lines over the stern and let the hooks drag along the furface of the water: The fish, taking the hooks for fmall fish, finap at them, and, when hooked, the fishermen fwing them into the barks with their rods. The Canarians call these fish taflarte: They have no fcales, and are shaped likemackarel, but as large as falmon; they are exceeding voracions and fwallow all the hook, notwithstanding its being fo large if it was bearded, there could be no fuch thing as extracting it without cutting open the fith: I have feen three men in the ftern of a bark catch an hundred and fifty tafferte in half an hour. It fometimes happens that a bark will complete her lading with thefe fish only. Another fort of fish, which thefe people call anhoua, is taken in the fame manner; this is fome thing 72 Fishing for Taffarte, Anboua, &c. Feb. most commodious place where to fall afleep, for no bedding are made use of in these veffels. About five or fix in the morning they get up, leave the boat near the fhore, weigh anchor and stand out to fea as before, and never taste victuals before the fame time next evening. No man who knows the toil, fatigue, cold, and heat which these fishermen undergo, will ever charge the Spaniards with lazinefs. The method of curing these fish is this: They cut them open, clean and wash them thoroughly, chop off their heads and fins, and pile them up to drain off the water; after which they are falted, and ftowed in bulk in the hold. But because they do not, like the French who fifh on the banks of Newfoundland, wash their fish a second time and re-falt them, they will not keep above fix weeks or two months. It is ftrange to think that the Spaniards should want to fhare the Newfoundland fishery with the English, when they have one much better at their own doors; I fay better, for the weather here, and every thing else, concurs to make it the beft fishery in the univerfe. What can be a stronger proof of this than the Moors on the continent drying and curing all their fish without falt, or by any other process than expofing them to the fun beams? For the pure whole fome air of that climate, and the strong northerly wind which almost constantly prevails on this coast, totally prevents putrefaction, provided the fish are fpilt open, well washed, and exposed to the fun until they are perfectly dry. As thefe veffels feldom go to fish on any part of the coaft of Barbary, to the windward of the islands, and are obliged to ply against the fresh northerly winds which almoft continually prevail there, they are conftructed in fuch a manner that they hold a good wind, as it is termed in the fea-language, being very fharp fore and aft, and full and flat in the middle. They are rigged brigantines, and carry a large flying fore-top-fail, but in general no maintop-fail, nor ftay-fails; they all carry large fprit-fails, but no jibbs. I have known these barks to beat to windward from Cape Blanco to Grand Canaria in twelve days, though the distance is above four hundred miles. Their method of plying to windward is this: They |