it receives so much of the pitch as will stick round it; then strowing some finely powdered amber over the pitch when growing cold, adding a mixture of three pounds of linseed oil and one of oil of turpentine, covering the vessel, and boiling them for an hour over a gentle fire, and grinding the mixture, as it is wanted, with so much pumice stone in fine powder as will reduce it to the consistence of paint. The fish being wiped dry, the mixture is spread upon it; and the gold leaf being then laid on and gently pressed down, the fish may be immediately put into water again, without any danger of the gold coming off, for the matter quickly grows hard in water. FISH, GOLD. See CYPRINUS. Franklin. Pope's imitation of Spenser is the description of an alley of fishwomen. Warton. FISH, in a ship, a plank or piece of timber, fastened to a ship's mast or yard, to strengthen it; which is done by nailing it on with iron spikes, and winding ropes hard about them. FISHES, in heraldry, are the emblems of silence and watchfulness; and are borne either upright, imbowed, extended, endorsed respecting each other, surmounting one another, fretted, &c. In blazoning fishes, those borne feeding, should be termed devouring; all fishes borne upright and having fins, should be blazoned hauriant; and those borne transverse the escutcheon, must be termed naiant. FISHES, in natural history, form the fourth class of animals in the Linnæan system. Their most general or popular division is into fresh and salt water ones. A few species only swim up into the rivers to deposit their spawn; but by far the greatest number keep in the sea, and would soon expire in fresh water. There are about 400 species of fishes (according to Linnæus), of which we know something; but the unknown ones are supposed to be many more; and, as they are thought to lie in great depths of the sea remote from land, it is probable that many species will remain for ever unknown. For the subdivisions, characters, and natural history of this class of animals, see ICHTHYOLOGY. Linreus's method of preserving fish for cabinets is to expose them to the air; and, when they acquire such a degree of putrefaction that the skin loses its cohesion to the body of the fish, it may be slid off almost like a glove; the two sides of this skin may then be dried upon paper like a plant, or one of the sides may be filled with plaster of Paris to give the subject a due plumpness. A fish may be prepared, after it bas acquired this degree of putrefaction, by making longitudinal incision on the belly, and carefully dissecting the fleshy part from the skin, which is but slightly attached to it in consequence of the putrescency. The skin is then to be filled with cotton and the antiseptic powder as directed for birds; and to be sewed up where the incision was made. In the posthumous papers of Mr. Hooke, a method is described of olding live craw-fish, carps, &c., without inring the fish. The cement for this purpose is prepared, by putting some Burgundy pitch into a new earthen pot, and warming the vessel till a who studied at Oxford, removed in 1525 to Gray's FISH (Simon), a lawyer, born in Kent, and Inn, London. Having here acted a part in a play intended to ridicule cardinal Wolsey, he incurred that minister's resentment, and fled to Germany, where he wrote The Supplication of the Beggars, a Satire upon the Romish Clergy, which was answered by Sir Thomas More's Supso pleased with the wit of Fish, that he granted plication of Souls. Henry VIII., however, was him his protection. He died in 1531. FISH RIVER (Great), a river of Southern Africa, which rises in the Sneuwberg Mountains, and falls into the Indian Sea. Long. 27° 20′ Ε., lat. 33° 30′ S. FISH RIVER, a river of West Florida, which 30° 30′ N. runs into Mobile Bay. Long. 87° 50′ W., lat. FISHACRE, or FIZACRE (Richard), a learned Dominican of the thirteenth century, was a native of Devonshire, and educated at Oxford. He was the intimate friend of Robert Bacon, and celebrated for his knowledge in philosophy and divinity. He died in 1248. His works were very numerous. FISHBORN CREEK, a river on the north side of the isle of Wight, which runs into the sea. Long. 1° 4' W., lat. 50° 44′ N. in Yorkshire, in 1459, and educated in that FISHER (John), D.D. was born at Beverly place. In 1484 he removed to Michael-house, Cambridge, of which college he was elected master in 1495. Having studied divinity, he took orders; and, becoming eminent as a divine, attracted the notice of Margaret, countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., who made him her chaplain and confessor. In 1501 he took the degree of D.D. and was elected chancellor of the university. In 1504 he was consecrated bishop of Rochester; which small bishopric he would never resign, though he was offered both Ely and Lincoln. The founding of the two colleges of Christ Church, and St. John's, in Cambridge, was entirely owing to his influence with the countess of Richmond. On the promulgation of Luther's doctrine, he exerted a'l his influence against it, and is supposed to have written the famous work for which Henry VIII. obtained the title of Defender of the Faith. But in 1527, opposing his divorce, and denying his supremacy, the implacable tyrant determined, and finally effected, his destruction. In 1534 the parliament found him guilty of misprision of treason, for concealing certain prophetic speeches of a fanatical impostor, called the holy maid of Kent, relative to the king's death, and condemned him, and five others, in loss of goods and imprisonment, but he was released on paying £300 for the king's use. But on the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn, having refused to take the oath of allegiance, alleging that he was not convinced that the king's first marriage was against the law of God, he was attainted by the parliament of 1534, and committed to the Tower, where he would probably Lave been suffered to close his life, had not Pope Paul III. created this zealous adherent to his cause a member of the college of cardinals. Henry on hearing that Fisher intended to accept of the dignity, exclaimed in a rage, Yea, is he so lusty? well, let the pope send him a hat when he will, he shall wear it on his shoulders, for I will leave him never a head to set it on.' In pursuance of this bloody intention the king sent Rich the solicitor-general, under pretence of consulting the bishop on a case of conscience, but really with a design to draw him into a conversation concerning the supremacy. The honest old bishop spoke his mind without reserve, and an indictment and conviction of high treason was the consequence. He was beheaded on Tower hill on the 22nd June 1535, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He wrote several treatises against Luther, and other works, which were printed at Wurtzburgh, in 1597, in 1 vol. folio. An interesting picture of the character of this prelate and his times is presented in the following ancient narrative of his execution :-' About nine of the clock, the Lieutenant came againe to the bishop, and, finding him almost ready, said that he was come now for him; ' I will wait upon you straight,' said he, as fast as this thin body of mine will give me leave.' Then said he to his man, Reach me my furred tippet to put about my neck.' O my lord,' said the lieutenant, what need you be so careful for your health for this little time, being, as yourself knoweth, not much above an hour?' 'I think no otherwise,' said this blessed father; but yet in the mean time I will keep myselfe as well as I can, till the very time of my execution; for I tell you truth, though I have, I thank our Lord, a very good desire and a willing minde to die at this time, and so trust of his infinite mercy and goodnesse he will continue it, yet will I not willingly hinder my health in the mean time, one minute of an houre, but still prolong the same as long as I can, by such reasonable waies and meanes as Almighty God hath provided for me.' With that, taking a little book in his hand, which was a New Testament lying by him, he made a crosse on his forehead, and went out of his prison doore with the lieutenant, being so weak that he was scarce able to go downe staires; wherefore, at the staires foot he was taken up in a chaire between two of the lieutenant's men, and carried to the Tower gate, with a great number of weapons about him, to be delivered to the sheriffs of London for execution. And as they were come to the uttermost precinct of the .iberty of the Tower, they rested there with him a space, till such time as one was sent before to know in what readinesse the sheriffs were to receive him; during which space he rose out of his chaire, and standing on his feet leaned his shoulders to the wall, and lifting up his eyes towards heaven, opened his little book in his hand, and said, O Lord, this is the last time that ever I shall open this book; let some comfortable place now chance unto me, whereby I thy poore servant may glorifie thee in this my last houre;' and with that looking into the book, the first thing that came to his sight were these words, Hæc est autem vita æterna, ut cognoscant te, solum verum Deum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum. Ego te glorificavi super terram, opus consummavi quod dedisti mihint faciam: et nunc clarifica tu me, Pater, apud temetipsum claritate quam habui priusquam &c.;' and with that he shut the book together, and said, ' Here is even learning enough for me to my life's end.' And so the sheriffs being ready for him, he was taken up again among certain of the sheriffs' men, with a new and much greater company of weapons than was before, and carried to the scaffold on the Tower hill, otherwise called East Smithfield, himselfe praying all the way, and recording upon the words which he before had read; and when he was come to the foot of the scaffold, they that carried him offered to help him up the staires; but then said he, 'Nay, masters, seeing I am come so farre, let me alone, and ye shall see me shift for myself well enough;' and so went up the staires without any helpe, so lively, that it was merveile to them that knew before of his debility and weaknes→. But as he was mounting up the staires, the south-east sun was shining very bright in his face, whereupon he said to himselfe these words, lifting up his hands, 'Accedite ad eum, et illuminamini, et facies vestra non confundetur.' By that time he was upon the scaffold it was about ten of the clock, where the executioner being ready to do his office, kneeled down to him, as the fashion is, and asked him forgivenesse: 'I forgive thee,' said he, 'with all my heart, and I trust thou shalt see me overcome this storm lustily.' Then was his gown and tippet taken from him, and he stood in his doublet and hose in sight of all the people, whereof was no small number assembled to see his execution. There was to be seen a long, lean, and slender body, having on it little other substance besides skin and bones, insomuch, as most of the beholders merveiled to see a living man so farre consumed, for he seemed a very image of death, and as it were death in a man's shape, using a man's voice; and therefore it was thought the king was something cruell to put such a man to death being so neere his end, and to kill that which was dying already, except it were for pity's sake to rid hirn of his pain. When the innocent and holy man was some time upon the scaffold, he spake to the people in effect as followeth :- Christian people, I am come hither to die for the faith of Christ's holy Catholique Church; and I thank God hitherto my stomack hath served me very well thereunto, so that yet I have not feared death; wherefore I desire you all to help and assist me with your prayers, that at the very point and instant of death's stroke, I may in that very moment stand steadfast, without fainting in any one point of the Catholique faith, free from any fear. And I beseech Almighty God of his infinite goodnesse, to save the king and his realme, and that it may please him to hold his hand over it and send him good counsel.' These, or like words, he spake with such a cheerful countenance, such a stout and constant courage, and such a reverend gravity, that he appeared to all men not only void of feare, but also glad of death. Besides this, he uttered his words so distinctly, and with so loud and cleare a voice, that the people were astonished thereat, and noted it for a miraculous thing, to heare so plain and audible a voice come from so weak and sickly an old body; for the youngest inan in that presence, being in good and perfect health, could not have spoken to be better heard and perceived than he was. Then after these few words by him uttered, he kneeled down on noth his knees and said certain prayers, among which one was the hymn of Te Deum laudamus, to the end, and the psalm of In te, Domine, speravi. Then came the executioner and bound a handkerchief about his eyes; and so this holy father, lifting up his hands and heart towards heaven, said a few prayers, which were not long, but fervent and devout; which being ended, he laid his head down on the middle of a little block, where the executioner being ready with a sharp and heavy axe, cut asunder his slender neck at one blow, which bled so abundantly that many wondered to see so much blood issue out of so slender and lean a body. Lord Her bert says that the Pope Paul III. sent hinta Cardinal's hat, but unseasonably, his head being off.' FISHER (John), D.D., a modern English prelate, was born at Hampton in Middlesex in 1748 his father being at that period curate of the village. Becoming afterwards chaplain to bishop Thomas, Mr. Fisher was by him presented to the vicarage of Peterborough, in the grammarschool of which city his eldest of ten sons, the subject of this memoir, received the rudiments of his education. He was afterwards removed to St. Paul's school, and thence proceeded to Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1766. In 1770 he took his degree of A. B. with considerable credit; and two years afterwards succeeded to a fellowship at St. John's, of which college he also became a tutor. While in this situation prince Czartorinski Poniatowski, and several other distinguished personages, were placed under his care; but it was to his integrity in the election of Dr. Chevalier to the vacant headship of his college, that his future success in life is to be mainly attributed. It induced bishop Hurd to recommend him to George III. in the capacity of tutor to prince Edward, afterwards duke of Kent. In 1787 he married the daughter of Mr. Scrivener of Sibton Abbey, Suffolk, and two years afterwards proceded to his doctor's degree. In 1803 he was raised to the bishopric of Exeter, and was appointed to superintend the education of the late lamented princess Charlotte. In 1809 he was translated to the see of Salisbury. Dr. Fisher died in this see, in 1825, with the character of a most amiable and unostentatious, while active churchman. FISHERIES. FISHERIES. While the sea surrounds her on every side, and her navy shall continue the bulwark of Great Britain, the subject of fisheries, and the encouragement of a hardy race of fishermen, must ever be of importance to this country. Both have, therefore, from an early period attracted the attention, not only of individuals, but of the government. It is said that nearly half of the known Linnæan species of fish frequent our shores. الة We cannot, in this article, attempt more than to furnish the reader with a sketch of the history of our principal established fisheries, i. e. the cod, the herring, the pilchard, the mackerel, the salmon, and the lobster and oyster fisheries, &c. of them articles of food, and of a large home consumption. For an account of the northern and southern whale-fishery, see those articles. We, perhaps, should first notice the longstanding complaint that has been made of our neglect of fish as an article of food. There can be no question that the complaint is just, as applied to a large portion of the inhabitants of this country. In the inland counties, the boring classes seldom or never touch it; tod is a luxury at the tables of respectable hamilies of the middle class; and salmon, once the common food of all ranks while in season, VOL. IX. in the northern counties, is universally scarce and dear; and through large portions of the country almost unknown. The only way in which this can be accounted for is, the entire monopoly of fish that has long been concentrated in the hands of the London salesmen. Boats to convey fish fresh to this market, gradually draw off all the regular supplies from the local markets: and the contrivance of packing fish in ice has further aided their absorption in this one direction. In the metropolis the price is always kept up sufficiently high to ensure a supply; when there is any danger of the supply becoming excessive, the old method of the Dutch East India Company, to enhance-the price of their spices, i. e. by destroying them, is resorted to; and the tricks and manœuvres of the fishermen, salesmen, and fishmongers, are only exceeded by those of Mark-Lane. In the cities of London and Westminster, to crown this modern absurdity in the supply of a principal article of food, there is also, unfortunately, but one fish-market-the favored Billingsgate 'The consequence of which is,' as Mr. Barrow has observed, 'that a sort of blockade checks the supply of fish for the metropolis; that large quantities are withheld or destroyed as they approach the market, in order to keep up the S price; and 2,000,000 от people are nearly prohabited from the use of an article of food, which might be applied to the diminishing of the consumption of butchers' meat and wheat-corn, to the great relief of the whole kingdom.' The committee of the fish association' have enumerated four principal impediments to an increased supply and distribution, of which they strongly recommend the removal by all practicable means. The first, which, in fact, produces the rest, is the restriction of the market to Biliingsgate; the second is the doubt and hesitation of fishermen in bringing up to this only market so large a quantity of fish as they might procare, under an uncertain demand for it; the third, the difficulty and the increased expense of distribution from their above-mentioned remote market; and the fourth, the uncertainty of the price, and the total ignorance in which the public are kept as to the daily state of the supply. The evils of the Billingsgate monopoly,' says the foregoing writer, 'are strongly exemplified in the case of mackerel, which is known to be scarcest in the market when most abundant in the British channel: then, indeed, the mackerel fishery is abandoned by the fishermen for two reasons; the one is, that they would be too cheap; the other, the difficulty of distribution, which is effected by fisherwomen, who attend daily at Billingsgate to purchase the mackerel, and carry them for sale to the different parts of the town: the attendance of these women secures to the fishermen a regular custom for their fish; but this laborious, and not always profitable employment, is abandoned as soon as the common fruit comes into season, the carriers and distributors finding the sale of strawberries, gooseberries, currants, &c., a more pleasant and profitable occupation, with less risk and trouble. All the mackerel which may arrive at this period, beyond the estimated demand of the fishmongers, however fresh and good, is thrown into the Thames. Perhaps, therefore, in the case of this particular fish, a free and unrestricted use of salt night be the means of procuring and preserving a considerable stock of palatable and nutritious food. It is the more surprising that these impediments to a more extended use of fish in the metropolis, so obviously arising out of the chartered privilege of Billingsgate, should so long have been suffered to exist, especially as nothing more is required for the dissolution of this injurious monopoly than the establishment of new markets. The evils of this monopoly are not of recent date. In early times, there appears to have been a regularly established fish-market at Queenhithe. In the first year of Henry III., 1226, the constable of the Tower was ordered to compel the boats, arriving with fish, to proceed to that market; and Edward IV. directed that two out of three vessels, arriving with fish, should proceed to Queenhithe, and the other remain at Billingsgate. At that period, the population of London, and its environs, appears to have been about a twenty-fourth part of its present amount, yet it had then two fish-markets. The market of Queenhithe, however, was suffered to drop; and we hear of no attempt to establish a second, until the middle of the last century, when an act was passed, in the year 1749, 'for making a free market for the sale of fish in the city of Westminster; and for preventing the forestalling and monopolising of fish. Yet, strange and unaccountable as it may appear, this act was then, and has since remained a dead letter. Westminster, since that time, has increased its population at least three-fold, and is still without a fish-market. The act has never been repealed, and requires only the nomination of new and more efficient commissioners to carry it into effect. If, in the vicinity of all the bridges across the Thames, fish-markets were once established, the fishermen of Deal, Dover, Hastings, Brighton, and other parts of the coasts of Kent and Sussex, would amply supply those markets by land-carriage, with the ordinary kinds of fish, in addition to the more valuable kinds brought up the Thames; and it could not fail to increase the general use of fish in and about London, if, when the Regent's canal shall be opened, two or three fish-markets were established near it for the supply of Islington, Pancras, Paddington, and the whole line of London along the New Road, containing an immense population almost entirely cut off from the use of fish. The only arguments in favor of keeping back the fish, and throwing them overboard, is the frequent westerly wind which prevents the fishing-vessels from proceeding to the market up the Thames; but that excuse is now done away by the numerous steam-vessels, which could easily tow up the fishing-boats.' With regard, therefore, to the country at large, the demand for fish has, for a great length of time, become too unsteady and unimportant to ensure that regular mercantile supply which the natural abundance of fish all around us, the inexhaustible natural supply, would teach us to expect. We are much surprised that spirited individuals in the interior parts of Great Britain are not found to undertake the regular transmission of it from the coasts; to stimulate the demand, and regulate the supply as a matter of trade: but into the vortex of London monopoly this great article of human subsistence has been drawn; and a great length of time, and many mercantile revolutions, may be necessary to recover it from it. We should, perhaps, add, that the salt duties (lately repealed) largely contributed to the disuse of salt-fish in this country. Certain it is that the fisheries have not always languished for want of public encouragement. In 1580 a plan was formed for raising £80,000 for establishing 'The British Fishery.' In 1615 the same sum was raised by a joint-stock company. In 1632 a Royal Fishing company was established under the sanction of Charles I.; who, in order to increase the demand, prohibited the importation of foreign fish, directed a supply to be furnished for his fleet, and ordered Lent to be more strictly observed. In 1660 parliament granted a remission of the salt duties, and freed all the materials employed in the fisheries from customs and excise. The national fishery met with great encouragement under the auspices of Charles II. In 1677 this monarch incorporated the duke of York and others into 'The Company of the Royal Fishery of England;' but their capital was exhausted in the purchase and fitting out of a few busses, built in Holland, and manned with Dutchmen, which were seized by the French. In 1713 it was proposed to raise £180,000 on annuities, for the purpose of establishing a fishing company. In 1749 by the recommendation of George II. in his opening speech to Parliament, and, in consequence of a report of a committee of the house of commons, the sum of £500,000 was subscribed for carrying on the fisheries, under a corporation, by the name of The Society of the Free British Fishery,' of which the Prince of Wales was chosen the governor. This society, patronised by men of the first rank, promised fair for a little time, but soon began to languish; nor was the large bounty of 56s. a ton, able to prevent its total failure. The attention of parliament was again called to this great national object in 1786, when a new corporation was formed, under the name of The British Society for Extending the Fisheries and Improving the Sea Coasts of the Kingdom,' which has continued, with various modifications, to the present time. Parliament also has been liberal in encouraging the fisheries by bounties. A committee of the house of commons, in 1785, reported that the herring-fishery cost the country little short of £20,000 annually, which, on an average of ten years, was equal to £75 per cent. on the value of all the fish that had been taken by the vessels on which it was paid. But, as Dr. Smith has observed, a tonnage-bounty, proportioned to the burden of the ship, and not to her diligence and success in the fishery, is not the best stimulus to exertion; it was an encouragement for fitting out ships to catch, not the fish, but the bounty; or to induce rash adventurers to engage in concerns which they do not understand. The carelessness of such persons, and the ignorance of those employed by them in curing and packing the fish, not only robbed the public purse, but destroyed the character of the article in the foreign market; where, if saleable at all, it fetched only an inferior price, while the skill and attention of the Dutch secured for their fish that preference to which they were justly entitled. The recent change of the bounty, however, from the tonnage to the quantity and the quality of the fish caught and cured, with the regulations adopted by the acts of 48th and 55th Geo. III. have had the good effect of raising the character, and consequently increasing the demand for British fish in the foreign markets, where the herrings in particular are now held in equal esteem with those of the Dutch. This bounty, granted by the act 48th Geo. III. c. 110, is 2s. per barrel on all herrings branded by the proper officers, and 4s. a barrel granted by the act 55th Geo. III. c. 94, and is so considerable, that, at present, it amounts to not less than £30.000 a-year. The following is an official return, for the year ending 5th April, 1818, of the total number of vessels, including their repeated voyages, which have been cleared outwards for the British Her North Britain takes the lead in all our domestic fisheries. The whole coast of Scotland may indeed be considered as one continued fishery, distinguished by the names of the Shetland, or northern fishery, that on the east side of the kingdom from the Pentland frith to Berwick, and the western or Hebrides fishery. The principal town on the Shetland Islands is called Lerwic, situated on a narrow channel of the Main-land, called Brassa or Brassey Sound. Hither the Dutch and other foreigners have been accustomed to resort to the fisheries at the appointed seasons, when Lerwic has had all the appearance of a continued market or fair. The eastern fisheries along the shores of Scotland, though less considerable than those on the coasts of Shetland, are also of great national importance. The late war, however, drove our Dutch neighbours from their haunts. In 1819 Mr. Stevenson, the celebrated engineer, thus describes their re-appearance there; and adds so many useful reflections on the subject of the fisheries of Scotland, that we transcribe the principal part of his paper on the subject originally communicated to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. 'In the early part of August last (1819), while sailing along the shores of Kincardineshire, about ten miles off Dunottar Castle, the watch upon deck, at midnight, called out Lights a-head.' Upon a nearer approach, these lights were found to belong to a small fleet of Dutch fishermen employed in the deep-sea fishing, eash vessel having a lantern at her masthead. What success these plodding people had met with, our crew had no opportunity of enquiring; but upon arriving the next morning at Fraserburgh, the great fishing station on the coast of Aberdeen, we found that about 120 boats, containing five men each, had commenced the fishing-season here six weeks before, and had that night caught no less than about 1500 barrels of herrings, which, in a general way, when there is a demand for fish, may be valued at £1 sterling |