COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, AGRICULTURE.

Trade and Shipping of London-Derry Port.

From the year 1750 to 1778, a considerable number of trading vessels were employed, belonging to this port. Between the years 1756 and 1768, one single house owned from 12 to 20 vessels. At the commencement of the American war, insurance becoming very high, on account of our relative situation to the maritime powers, and the colonial trade being at the same time much reduced, the shipping of London-Derry became proportionably diminished.

The interval between this and the late French war, was too short to afford an opportunity for the recruit of our ships. During this war, the Americans, together with the Northern powers, being respected as neutral, became, almost exclusively, the carriers of all the trade of this port.

At present, there are scarcely any vessels, which, strictly speaking, belong to the merchants of London-Derry, except three, which, under the character of constant traders, are chiefly employed in carrying yarn, hides, butter, &c. to Liverpool, and which bring back beer, porter, coal, woollens, cottons, earthen-ware, hard-ware, the manufac tures of England, with sugars, rum, and other West-India produce.

The trade to the north of Europe is carried on with the ports of Petersburg, Riga, and Archangel, belonging to Russia; with Dantzic, Elbing, Koningsberg, and Memel, belonging to Prussia; with Dronten, Christiansund, Christiana, and the ports near the Neze, belonging to Norway and Denmark; with Gottenburg and Stockholm, belonging to the Swedes. The articles imported are chiefly iron, hemp, flax, flax-seed, tallow, tar, and timber.

A considerable trade is also carried on with the northern states of America; flax-seed, tobacco, tar, white oak, plank, and staves, are among the articles of most general commerce: wheat and wheaten flour may be imported under certain regulations. In return, we export money, linens, chiefly 3-4ths wide, unbleached, and of a low price; we also export the most valuable of all products-the human race. In former, years I have heard this export rated at from four to five thousand annually, from the port of London-Derry; it has been during the war subject to severe regulations, and consequently on the decline; but that it will revive, is beyond doubt, so soon as opportunity will permit the partition of farms, with the excessive rents, will guarantee this effort at mending their condition, at least among the Protestant part of the population. It is to an improved system of agriculture alone, that we can look for the preservation of this plant, which, under due encouragement, may one day find a sufficient scope for industry in those bogs and wastes, at present disgracefully neglected.

With the West Indies we may have a direct trade; but this is at present enjoyed rather in the permission than in the fact. From the Clyde white and barreled herrings are imported.

From Oporto, Lisbon, and St. Ubes, London-Derry receives a considerable quantity of wine, both directly, and also through Dublin and Belfast.

There is some trade carried on with Bristol and London. A considerable share of the provision trade has been occasionally carried on from the port of London-Derry.

By the navigation act, every nation is permitted to carry the goods considered to be of its own produce. The ships, belonging formerly to London-Derry, were chiefly of the build of those provinces in North America, over which his Britannic Majesty retained the sovereignty; of these vessels, hardly one remains. During the war, some relaxation was permitted, from which it resulted that, though the Irish ship-owners might have been injured, the Irish trade was extended.

Port of Coleraine.

The importations consist chiefly of sugar, salt, coals, timber, deals, earthenware, hardware, and herrings. The exportations, principally of beef, butter, hides, and linen yarn. Coleraine is not permitted to import certain articles, such as tobacco, spirits, teas, and wines; the loss to its trade must, of course, be considerable, as the merchants are obliged, for the most part, to bring all those commodities overland from Belfast. If this restriction was done away, to which there seems to be no reasonable objection, and the bar, at the entrance of the harbour, made navigable, or else a canal from Portrush either to Coleraine itself, or to some part of the Bann river near to the sea, from the situation of the town, it is supposed, that the external trade would materially increase, and at the same time that the intercourse with the internal part of the county would become much greater.

The articles of commerce, which are brought to this town by land-carriage, are chiefly flannels, frizes, rateens, serges, cottons, haberdashery, stationary, and other such goods as are of light weight and considerable value.

By coasting vessels, dry fruits, dye-woods, starch, bleaching stuffs, porter, English strong beer, iron, wrought and unwrought, are carried to Coleraine for the purposes of retail. There is, besides, an intermediate trade through Belfast, which compared to that carried on immediately with Dublin, may be estimated, perhaps, in the ratio of ten to one. I am informed, that scarcely more than a single vessel has arrived annually from the latter port, for the last three years.

The principal foreign trade is with Gottenburg, Christiansund, Dantzic, Memel, and Roterdam. This trade is carried in vessels freighted by the merchants, but not belonging to the port of Coleraine. The shipping is inconsiderable; most of the larger vessels which frequent this port belong to Dantzic; some of those which will carry 200 tons, will draw but eight feet and a half of water, and from this circumstance have been enabled to pass with safety over

the bar, which is a most formidable obstruction. It is a shoal of sand, thrown up between the river-vent and the sea-tide, entirely across the outlet of the Bann. Any vessel which is not skilfully piloted, and at the same time favoured by wind and tide, will run great risque of touching on this shoal; and if once retained, has but small chance of escaping the breakers which, during the prevalence of certain winds, roll with formidable impetuosity over this bar.

Several projects for improving the harbour of Coleraine have been suggested. A canal to pass from the dam behind the town to the road of Portrush. A rail-way to the same place to accompany the new line of road. A canal from the river near the Laughan island to the above-mentioned basin or dam; all of these have been spoken of, but none of them has hitherto been much pressed upon the public attention; not because the practicability is doubtful, but because the advantage is uncertain, and the risque of course would be serious.

As to other speculations of this class, mention of them has been made under the titles of Rivers and Canals.

Internal Commerce.

We have little to note under this head except that which relates to the Fisheries; of these therefore we proceed to give some account.

Fisheries.

We find, in a survey made before that of Captain Pynnar, which I take to be that of Sir Josias Bodley, the following particulars concerning some fisheries of London-Derry.

"The moiety of the fishing of the Bann, unto which moiety, as likewise unto the other moiety, the assignees of Sir William Godolphin make claim, by a lease for 21 years, made the 42d of Elizabeth, which lease hath been in question, and allowed by the state in Ireland, and the assignees of John Wakeman do claim the fee simple thereof, by letters patent, dated the third Jacobi; and the Lord Bishop of Derry claimeth one days fishing, viz. the second Monday after

Midsummer day, in the river of the Bann, and likewise the fishing of the wear of Ballinasse, which, notwithstanding, was granted by letters patent to Thomas Ireland, and by him assigned to Sir Thomas Phillips, who is now in possession thereof.

"A small salmon fishing in the river of Roe, which is in his majesty's possession.

"A small salmon fishing in the creek of Foughan, falling into Lough Foile, in his majesty's possession.

"Certain small pools for fishing in the south-side of Lough Foile, in the king's possession. But the Lord Bishop of Derry doth claim a pool, called Clonye."

At present, the principal fisheries are those for salmon on the river Bann, and at the Rosses-bay, at Culmore, on the east side of the harbour of Derry, i. e. that anciently called Clonye; as to those which lie higher than the liberties of London-Derry, on the Foyle river, though not within the county, yet are they appertaining by charter to the Irish Society. That the original right to certain of those fisheries was vested in the ancient monasteries, within whose precincts they lay, appears from this, that on the suppression of those monasteries, we find that the then bishop of Derry laid claim to them, as successor to the ecclesiastical rights.

In the instructions to commissioners for the plantation of these territories, it was a direction, that the "fishings in loughs and rivers are to be allotted to the proportions next adjoining;" thence arose, at an early day, an opposition of claims between the London companies and the Bishop of Derry. It appears, that the privilege of fishing in the Bann, on the first Monday after Midsummer, which privilege had belonged to the convent of Coleraine, was actually exercised by a bishop of Derry. The day of exercising this right was, therefore, called Bishop's Monday, and a very old man, named Andrew Irwin, who was alive in 1800, remembered the exercise of this privilege; he also declared, that he was fishing at Black-point, near the Crannagh, on the day of the battle of the Boyne; and that during the whole