Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/199

 ¬tribution ; but, depend upon it, our legislature will never rest till this great object is accom- plished. ¬" With you, I fear, there is a fatal bar to improvement. — Be assured every attempt to- wards it must be abortive, whilst you keep up your duty upon salt; because the allowances you make to those who are engaged in fisheries, when guarded by the necessary forms to prevent frauds upon so important a revenue, render them of no use whatsoever, and fish can never be made a support for an inland population in their natural state. — Is it not, then, the height of folly to have resort to foreign fisheries at an immense distance, when other nations leave their own coasts and come almost into your harbours, from the superior abundance of your seas ? — They take your finest fish — they cure them with your own salt, the best in all your world, which is duty-free when exported ; they main- tain their people in comfort, whilst your's are everywhere starving, and prosper by a trade ¬out ¬