en, in the best year. The fifteen ships
of France, according to this ground of calculation, and supposing the
present to have been one of the best years, should have brought,
one with another, one fifth of two hundred and sixty-five tons, or
fifty-three tons each. But we are told, they have brought near the
double of that, to wit, one hundred tons each, and fifteen hundred tons
in the whole. Supposing the two northern vessels to have brought home
the cargo which is common from the northern fishery, to wit, twenty-five
tons each, the whole produce this year will then be fifteen hundred and
fifty tons. This is five and a half months'provision, or two fifths of
the annual consumption. To furnish for the whole year, would require
forty ships of the same size, in years as fortunate as the present, and
eighty-five, _communibus annis_; forty-four tons, or one sixth of the
burthen, being as high an average as should be counted on, one year
with another: and the number must be increased, with the increasing
consumption. France, then, is evidently not yet in a condition to
supply her own wants. It is said, indeed, she has a large stock on hand,
unsold, occasioned by the English competition. Thirty-three thousand
quintals, including this year's produce, are spoken of: this is between
six and seven months'provision; and supposing by the time this is
exhausted that the next year's supply comes in, that will enable her to
go on five or six months longer; say a twelvemonth in the whole. But,
at the end of the twelvemonth, what is to be done? The manufacturers
depending on this article, cannot maintain their competition against
those of other countries, if deprived of their equal means. When the
alternative, then, shall be presented, of letting them drop, or opening
the ports to foreign whale-oil, it is presumable the latter will be
adopted, as the lesser evil. But it will be too late for America. Her
fishery, annihilated during the late war, only began to raise its head,
on the prospect of a market held out by this country. Crushed by the
_Arret_ of September the 28th, in its first feeble effort to revive, it
will rise no more. Expeditions, which require the expense of the outfit
of vessels, and from nine to twelve months' navigation, as the southern
fishery does, most frequented by the Americans, cannot be undertaken
in sole reliance on a market, which is opened and shut from one day to
another, with little or no warning. The English a