wbacks, by the aid of which they
make London the centre of commerce for the whole earth. A less general
remedy, but an effectual one, was, to prohibit the oils of all European
nations: the treaty with England requiring only, that she should be
treated as well as the most favored European nation. But the remedy
adopted was, to prohibit all oils, without exception.

To know how this remedy will operate, we must consider the quantity of
whale-oil which France consumes annually, the quantity she obtains from
her own fishery; and, if she obtains less than she consumes, we are to
consider what will follow the prohibition.

The annual consumption of France, as stated by a person who has good
opportunities of knowing it, is as follows.

lbs. pesant. quinteaux. tons.

Paris, according to the registers of
1786,.................................2,800,000 28,000 1750

Twenty-seven other cities, lighted
by M. Sangrain,........................ 800,000 8,000 500

Rouen,..................................500,000 5,000 312
Bordeaux,...............................600,000 6,000 375
Lyons,..................................300,000 3,000 187
Other cities, leather and light,......3,000,000 30,000 1875
--------- ------ ----
8,000,000 80,000 5,000

Other calculations, or say rather, conjectures, reduce the consumption
to about half this. It is treating these conjectures with great respect,
to place them on an equal footing with the estimate of the person before
alluded to, and to suppose the truth half way between them. But we will
do it, and call the present consumption of France only sixty thousand
quintals, or three thousand seven hundred and fifty tons a year. This
consumption is increasing fast, as the practice of lighting cities is
becoming more general, and the superior advantages of lighting them with
whale-oil are but now beginning to be known.

What do the fisheries of France furnish? She has employed, this year,
fifteen vessels in the southern, and two in the northern fishery,
carrying forty-five hundred tons in the whole, or two hundred and
sixty-five each, on an average. The English ships, led by Nantuckois as
well as the French, have never averaged in the southern fishery, more
than one fifth of their burth